Strengthen dialogue with Japan, says Xi

President discusses ties in phone talk with country's new prime minister

China and Japan have pledged to advance the building of a constructive and stable relationship for the new era as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of the normalization of their ties next year.

President Xi Jinping and newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made the pledge when they spoke by phone on Friday. Their telephone conversation came after Kishida, leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was elected on Monday as the country's 100th prime minister.

Noting that Sino-Japanese relations face both opportunities and challenges, Xi said that upholding and developing friendly cooperative relations between the two neighbors is in the interests of both countries and their peoples, and is also beneficial to the peace, stability and prosperity of Asia and the world at large.

He appreciated that the new Japanese government attaches importance to maintaining high-level communication with China, and said Beijing is willing to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with Tokyo and advance bilateral ties in the new era in the spirit of "taking history as a mirror and looking forward to the future".

Xi called on the two countries to learn from the experiences and lessons in their relations, and urged Japan to strictly abide by the principles stipulated in the four political documents that underpin bilateral ties.

The two countries need to take measures to implement the political consensus of "treating each other as cooperative partners instead of threats", and properly handle major sensitive matters concerning history and the Taiwan question, Xi said.

They should strive to manage their differences, enable their relations to develop in the right direction and safeguard the political foundation and overall situation of bilateral ties, he added.

Xi underlined the need for both countries to strengthen exchanges in governance experience as well as coordination in economic policies, and jointly uphold a trade and investment environment that is open and fair in order to develop higher-quality win-win cooperation by leveraging each other's strength for mutual benefits.

They should also practice true multilateralism to serve the fundamental interests of each other as well as the common interests of humanity, he said.

Xi urged the two countries to work together to actively promote regional cooperation, coordinate efforts in coping with global challenges and uphold world peace, stability and development.

While congratulating Japan on its success in hosting the Tokyo Olympic Games, he welcomed the Japanese delegation's active participation in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in February.

Kishida told Xi that in the current international and regional situation, Japan-China relations are marching toward the new era.

Japan stands ready to work with China to learn from the history of bilateral ties, take next year's 50th anniversary as an opportunity and make joint efforts to promote the countries' ties in the new era, he said.

Kishida also underscored the need to manage differences between China and Japan through dialogue.

Tokyo is ready to continue to intensify bilateral economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, and develop close communication and partnership with Beijing on major international and regional issues including the response to COVID-19 and climate change, he said, adding that it also looks forward to a successful Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Both leaders agreed that their phone talks are timely and highly important. They also agreed to continue to maintain interactions and communications in various ways to guide the development of bilateral ties.