Experts welcome willingness to set aside sensitive issues

The joint declaration signed yesterday by China and Japan was hailed by Sino-Japanese experts as a good start that showed a willingness to set aside contentious issues in the interests of closer ties.

Analysts said the joint communique put forward a comprehensive set of principles to govern the future development of bilateral ties, and its all-encompassing nature set it apart from three previous agreements.

Describing President Hu Jintao's trip as a success, Li Guangmin, an expert on Sino-Japanese relations at Qingdao University's Politics and International Studies Institute, said the declaration laid out a basic framework for relations between the two countries, leaving its translation into practice to various government departments in the future.

Professor Li said that in the past both sides tended to insist on their own interpretations on controversies such as territorial and gas-field disputes in the East China Sea, but this time 'the wording of the declaration showed that both countries tried to avoid touching on sensitive issues'.

He said Beijing was most worried now about whether Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda would continue to be leader after the general election in September next year, given his unpopularity in his homeland.

'This declaration does not have any binding effect on subsequent governments and we're not sure if this will be carried on,' he said.

While Premier Wen Jiabao's 'ice-melting' trip to Japan last year resulted in a joint statement that centred on co-operation on trade, energy and environmental issues, former president Jiang Zemin's trip to Japan in 1998 - the last one by a Chinese head of state until now - was considered a failure because he did not deliver breakthroughs on issues such as wartime history.