(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-17 07:05

A sustainable good relationship between China and Japan is something that requires a great deal of steady effort.

And the two countries are making this effort to bring their young people together. President Hu Jintao's greeting to visiting Japanese youngsters on Saturday - "let's count on the young minds and hearts to pursue a friendly relationship from generation to generation" - shows clearly the way forward. China and Japan has designated the year for friendship between their young people.

China and Japan share a lot in common such as calligraphy and the tea ceremony. These lay a basis for the two peoples to understand each other better.

When a good understanding takes root in the younger generations of the two countries, a lasting friendship between them and their countries might be possible. Exchanges among youngsters of the two countries for a whole year are supposed to enable them to learn from and communicate with each other. Trust can be rooted in these young people, who will be the future helmsmen for China-Japan relations.

The agreement the two countries have inked on strengthening educational cooperation and cultural exchanges between their young peoples is concrete. Since 2006 China and Japan has sent 1,250 senior middle school students respectively every year to each other's country. Such a project was kept running even when the political dimension of the bilateral relations was frozen.

The two governments' consensus on planting the seeds of friendship in the young is thought provoking. We hope young people from both countries can gain a true understanding of modern China and Japan, so that misunderstandings and prejudice can be cleared up.

Geographically China and Japan are very close, and when it comes to the psychological distance between the two peoples, it is even more meaningful. No wonder every time the leaders of the two countries meet, they talk about promoting exchanges between the young people.

A survey of college students of the two countries last year found that 10 percent of the Japanese respondents had visited China and less than 4 percent of Chinese students had been to Japan. And more than half of the respondents expressed a willingness to visit each other's country.

These figures are meaningful on two accounts. The young people of the two countries want to know each other. And there is still much the two governments need to do to facilitate their exchanges.

(China Daily 03/17/2008 page4)