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Confrontation will hurt both: China vice premier
April 18, 2013, 8:14 am

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang (R) meets with a delegation led by Yohei Kono[Xinhua]

Chinese vice premier Wang Yang (right) meets with a Japanese delegation led by Kono Yohei (left) [Xinhua]

Confrontation between China and Japan can only hurt both nations, China’s top leadership asserted earlier this week.

Wang Yang, China’s vice premier has met with a Japanese trade delegation, headed by Kono Yohei, Japan’s former House of Representatives speaker.

China and Japan are two countries with great influence and they enjoy broad common interests, Wang said during the meeting on Tuesday.

Sino-Japanese trade plunged to $70.8 billion, down 10.7 per cent according to January to March data released by China’s General Administration of Customs on April 10.

China is willing to work with Japan to further promote the two sides’ strategic relationship of mutual benefit under the various principles in the four political documents between the two countries, the Chinese leader urged.

The deterioration in Sino-Japan bilateral relations owes primarily to the sovereignty dispute over a set of Islands, called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku by the Japanese.

This has made products of Japanese companies less popular in China, contributing to the import reduction.

China’s imports from Japan stood at $35.9 billion, down 16.6 per cent from last year.

The US has overtaken China as the top export destination of Japanese products according to latest data released by Japan on Thursday.

Wang on Tuesday with his meeting with the Japanese delegation also voiced willingness to continuously promote the construction of a free trade zone among China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Yohei said the association is willing to help improve the two countries’ relations, enhance communication from a local level and strengthen cooperation in food security, promoting construction of the China-Japan-ROK free trade zone and developing third-country markets with China.

With inputs from Xinhua