Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua signed "Keio Kaikai" (inherit the past, open the future) in a commemorative notebook at the Asia Association (secretariat in Palaceside Building), Imperial Hotel, March 21, marking 40 years since normalization of diplomatic relations.
"Trade has grown to roughly 30 billion dollars each way — 300 times over 40 years. Human exchange will soon exceed 6 million from about 10,000. We must deepen neighborly ties across the sea on the basis of strategic mutual benefit," he said.
Quoting historian Guo Moruo's "Two thousand years of friendship, fifty years of conflict," he stressed understanding each other. On sensitive issues including the Senkaku Islands, he urged both sides to handle national sentiment carefully without yielding to provocation by some.
"Forty years on we wish to say 'at forty, free of confusion,' but we still seem a little confused. Let us strive to enter a period of maturity," he concluded — entirely in Japanese without an interpreter.