During his recent meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Chinese President Hu Jintao put forward a five-point proposal concerning Sino-Japanese relations. At present, a correct understanding and treatment of Sino-Japanese economic and trading cooperation is both the objective requirement for further developing the economies of the two countries and the topic sense on further promoting Sino-Japanese ties onto a sound and stable track.

Economic and trading ties are an important component of Sino-Japanese relationship. Over the past 33 years, Sino-Japanese economic relations have experienced sustained and rapid development, trade volume alone has grown 160-fold, interdependence has been deepening from day to day. The difference in economic structures of the two countries determines that there is evident complementarity in the economic cooperation of the two countries. Under the new situation, such complementarity, instead of being weakened, has become more prominent; the common interests of the two sides have witnessed an increase instead of a decrease. Facts have proved that the huge amounts of Japanese funds and advanced technologies have promoted China's economic construction, economic and trading cooperation with Japan has played an active role in China's economic restructuring and employment expansion.

In 2004, the volume of trade between China and Japan stood as high as US$167.8 billion, which, together with Sino-US and Sino-EU trade relations, forms a situation of tripartite ties like the three legs of a tripod. The total contracted value of Japanese investment in China amounted to US$66.6 billion, making Japan a most important source of foreign capital for China. China-Japan economic cooperation conforms to the fundamental interests of the people of both countries.

China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) came at the cost of 15-year-long arduous negotiations. With respect to the advancement of liberalization of investment trade, great hopes are placed on China by the vast numbers of WTO member states. In the face of the new trends of the in-depth development of economic globalization, we must participate in international competition and cooperation in a larger scope and a wider area and at a higher level, and balance domestic development and opening to the outside world. As a WTO member and a large responsible country, China is facing the most important task to follow the WTO principles, fulfill its foreign commitments, persist in opening to the outside world as it has always done, develop normal economic and trade relations with various countries, treat foreign commodities on the Chinese market in a manner of fairness and equality, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors.

Over the past three years and more since China's entry into the WTO, China's foreign trade has taken a big step forward each year, but at the same time, China has also entered the period of frequent occurrence of trade frictions, making it the biggest victimized country of trade relief measures in the world. In the face of a complicated environment, grim situation and the simultaneous existence of opportunities and challenges, we should calmly treat China-involved international disputes, base ourselves on reciprocity and mutual benefit, continue to strengthen foreign economic and trading cooperation, maintain a good attitude of a big responsible country and refrain from politicizing the economic and trade issue.

As the saying goes, "It's valuable to be sensible in the face of the emergence of new problems". The prosperity of the world needs China, the development of China cannot be achieved without the world.

China's foreign trade dependence has risen to 70 percent, the number of employees in foreign trade-related fields has topped 100 million, import and export tax revenue accounts for 18 percent of the total volume of all tax revenue; the industrial output value of foreign-funded enterprises makes up one-third of the country's total output value, taxes from foreign enterprises make up 20 percent of the national total tax revenues, the exports of foreign enterprises account for over 57 percent of the nation's total, the number of people directly employed by foreign enterprises accounts for over one-10th of the nation's total urban employees. Here contains the contribution made by Sino-Japanese economic cooperation. In fact, under the background of economic globalization, various countries' production elements are exchanged and allocated in accordance with the law of value, many foreign brands are created in the forms of joint venture or cooperation with other countries, the interweaving of enterprise benefits has become a common phenomenon in the economic life of various countries around the world.

The wrong attitudes and practices taken recently by some Japanese politicians and Right-wing forces on the question of history and on the Taiwan issue have aroused the strong discontent of the Chinese nationals, with the result that a call was raised by some people for "boycotting Japanese goods". However, Sino-Japanese economic cooperation has become increasingly inter-dependent, a boycott of commodities would undoubtedly harm the interests of the producers and consumers of both sides and would be detrimental to China's foreign cooperation and development.

On the premise of requiring the Japanese side to show its sincerity and look upon history squarely, we should base ourselves on a win-win result, be subordinated to the general situation, further consolidate and deepen Sino-Japanese economic ties, and properly safeguard the fundamental, core interests of our country. Interest is not unilateral, interests are determined by cohesive force, this is no exception to Sino-Japanese economic and trade cooperation.