Condition laid out for resuming summit talks

President Hu Jintao said on Friday that he is ready to meet Japan's leader as long as he promises not to visit the Yasukuni Shrine that honours Japanese World War II war criminals.

Hu made the remark when he met the heads of seven Japan-China friendship organizations at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

It is the first time China's leader has explicitly laid out conditions for resuming long-stalled talks between the two countries' top leaders.

"As long as the Japanese leader makes a clear-cut decision to no longer visit the Yasukuni Shrine, where Class-A war criminals are honoured, I would like to hold talks with him to improve Sino-Japanese relations," Hu told his Japanese guests, who included former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.

Current Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro's repeated visits to the shrine, a symbol of Japan's past militarism, led to the suspension of high-level contact between the two countries.

Hu said the cause of the worsening relationship did not lie with China or ordinary Japanese people.

The crux of the problem is that the Japanese leader insists on visiting the shrine, which has hurt the feelings of Chinese people and damaged the political foundation of Sino-Japanese relations.

To properly solve the problems hindering bilateral ties, one must "take a responsible attitude towards history, respect historical facts and learn from history," Hu said.

He said the visit by the Japanese organizations reflected their wish to improve bilateral relations.

During the one-and-a-half-hour meeting, Hu said that friendly Sino-Japanese ties were in the fundamental interests of the two peoples and contributed to peace and stability in Asia and the world at large.

Hu said the Chinese Government has a clear, consistent and unswerving stance towards its relations with Japan.

"We will abide by the principles of the three Sino-Japanese political documents ... and continue to adhere to the principle of 'taking history as a mirror and looking into the future,'" said Hu.

He said China would adhere to its good neighbourly foreign policy and would not pose a threat or challenge to any country.

"China's national defence policy is completely defensive in nature and is aimed at safeguarding its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"China has not, and will never, seek hegemony," he said, rejecting the "China threat" theory as totally groundless.

Ryutaro Hashimoto and other heads of the Japanese organizations expressed appreciation for the meeting and vowed to continue to play an important role in promoting exchanges.

The seven Japanese organizations are: the Japanese Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Association of Dietmen League for Japan-China Friendship, Japan-China Friendship Association, Japan-China Cultural Exchange Association, Japan-China Association on Economy and Trade, Japan-China Society, and Japan-China Friendship Centre.

In another development, China on Friday lodged a strong protest against Japan's latest revision of a batch of new senior middle school textbooks regarding the Diaoyu Islands.

A Foreign Ministry official in charge of Asian affairs summoned the ambassador of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing to protest against the revision, which claimed the Diaoyu Islands were Japanese territory.

"The Diaoyu Islands have been Chinese territory since ancient times. China holds indisputable legal evidence of ownership," he said.

Japan completed its annual review of school textbooks on Wednesday after ordering publishers to state clearly Tokyo's claim to certain territories, including the Diaoyu Islands.

The official said the Japanese move constituted an obvious infringement upon China's territorial sovereignty.

"Any unilateral action by the Japanese side is illegal and invalid," the official said.

He asked Japan to promptly correct the erroneous decision and actions.

Source: China Daily