Foreign and Military Affairs
Vice-president to kick off Asia circuit in Japan
By Ai Yang, Cheng Guangjin and Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-11 07:24
Vice-President Xi Jinping will kick off a nine-day tour of four Asian countries on Monday with his first stop in Japan, the Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.
Xi will be the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Japan since Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took over the country's leadership in September.
Analysts said Japan, under the leadership of the DPJ, is growing increasingly closer to the rest of Asia by having more high-level interactions with China.
"We hope to increase political trust, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, establish a good-natured atmosphere between people from both nations and promote the continuous development of bilateral relations," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
She said Xi would depart from Japan on Wednesday for three destinations - the Republic of Korea, Cambodia and Myanmar - before returning to China on Dec 22.
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Yang said that the global financial recession accelerated cooperation between China and Japan.
"Exports to East Asia, especially China, has helped Japan's economy a lot in the third quarter this year," the expert said.
China and Japan have maintained frequent exchanges between high-level officials since Hatoyama came to power. State leaders from each nation met in the US when attending the United Nations meetings in New York in September.
Last month, China's foreign and defense ministers toured Japan. Defense Minister General Liang Guanglie made a historical visit to the destroyer ship Chokai, which is equipped with the advanced Aegis combat system.
Yesterday in Beijing, President Hu Jintao met with Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ's secretary-general. Both vowed to use interparty exchanges better to enhance "strategic and mutually beneficial" ties.
Zhou Yongsheng, an expert on Japanese studies with China Foreign Affairs University, said these high-level meetings indicate that Japan holds the Asian community in high esteem.
"China and Japan are engaging in healthy interactions. These meetings also prepare the two for improvements to Sino-Japanese relations next year," said Zhou.
One possible setback to relations occurred yesterday when Hatoyama "urged" China to make progress on democracy and human rights, Reuters reported.
Hatoyama "could irritate Beijing" with his comments at the Bali Democracy Forum in Indonesia, which brings together officials from across Asia, including China, the report said.
"There is great expectation that China will continue to make progress, as a responsible power, on the issue of democracy and human rights," Hatoyama said in Japan.
Yang, however, said Hatoyama was speaking to a domestic audience before next year's House of Councilors election.
