Op-Ed Contributors

Ties with Japan important

By Yang Bojiang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-16 08:01

Chinese public has increasingly harbored a global and widerdiplomatic perspective in their view of relations with Japan

As China's economic and strategic influences continue to rise on the international stage, Chinese people have become increasingly confident of their country's ability to manage ties with Japan, and have become more open-minded in viewing Japan's World War II history.

The number of Chinese people holding a good opinion of Japan has been on the increase since Junichiro Koizumi stepped down as Japanese prime minister in Sept 2006, according to a survey jointly organized by the China Daily and Genron NPO, a Japanese non-political organization, ahead of their annual co-sponsored "Beijing-Tokyo" Forum.

Compared with the 24.4 percent of the polled Chinese public who looked positively on Japan in 2007, the proportion has now risen to 38.3 percent, the survey shows. This is partly because of the release of Chinese people's desire to improve ties with Japan that were suppressed during Koizumi's term in office.

Chinese people share a widespread recognition of the importance of the interdependence of China and Japan and Tokyo's role in China's development.

Sixty-five percent of the Chinese public believe Japan's economic development is beneficial and necessary to China's development, according to the survey. The proportion is even higher among Chinese students, reaching as high as 74.1 percent. Only 30.3 percent of the Chinese public and 17.7 percent of Chinese students regard Japan's economic development as a threat to China.