Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong met in Beijing Wednesday with a Japanese delegation led by former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and Ikuo Hirayama, president of the Japan-China Friendship Association.  

Zeng praised the association's role in pushing forward the friendly relations between China and Japan.

Zeng said he was satisfied with the general situation of the bilateral relations at present.

Since the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1972, Zeng said, the two sides have greatly developed their friendship, which brought about real benefits for both Chinese and Japanese peoples.

While China sees a strong economic growth and Japan tries to get out of sluggishness, Zeng said, the bilateral cooperation would have even greater potential.

However, Zeng said, the two countries still need to appropriately deal with certain issues which might do harm to the friendly relationship, such as historical and Taiwan issues.

Zeng said the two issues are related to vital principles of the Sino-Japanese relationship.

The Chinese side always advocates the principle of learning from history and looking forward into the future, Zeng said.

He said he hopes the Japanese side will stick to the principles set by three political documents including the joint communique, in order to properly handle the two above-mentioned issues.

Murayama said that in his speech on Aug. 15, 1995 when he was the prime minister, he apologized for wartime atrocities done by the Japanese invaders to other Asian nations.

He said he hopes the Japanese government will appropriately deal with the historical and other issues.

Hirayama said he hopes the two countries will carry out more cultural exchanges.

(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2004)