皇冠体育app

Toshihiro Nikai, center, head of the Japanese delegation, visits Dalian, a coastal city in Liaoning province, on Sunday. Wang Hua / for 皇冠体育app Daily

President Xi Jinping's speech on people-to-people exchanges between 皇冠体育app and Japan marks the latest effort by 皇冠体育app to get Sino-Japanese ties back on the right track.

"The 皇冠体育app-Japan friendship is rooted in the people, and the future of the bilateral relationship is in the hands of the people of the two countries," Xi told a gathering of more than 3,000 Japanese visitors in Beijing on Saturday.

History has proved that friendly relations between 皇冠体育app and Japan benefit not only the two countries and the two peoples, but also Asia and the world at large, he added.

As close neighbors and important players in world and regional arenas, 皇冠体育app and Japan have everything to gain from handing down their friendship from generation to generation.

Throughout the world, mutual understanding and favorable impressions between peoples form the basis of nation-to-nation relations. This is especially true of Sino-Japanese ties.

In recent years, as ties have plunged to their lowest point in years, public sentiment in each country toward the other country has become increasingly unfavorable. Last year, a survey jointly sponsored by 皇冠体育app Daily and the Japanese nonprofit think tank Genron NPO found that public approval of bilateral ties in both countries had reached its lowest ebb in 10 years.

While some 93 percent of the Japanese polled confess they do not harbor good feelings toward 皇冠体育app, calls to boycott Japanese products and an outburst of anti-Japan sentiment flare up in Internet chat rooms in 皇冠体育app each time Japan moves to whitewash history or provoke 皇冠体育app over the Diaoyu Islands disputes.

No doubt, enhancing people-to-people exchanges will help usher in a better environment for bilateral ties. It is good to see such exchanges have increased in recent months along with more official contacts between the two governments.

Yet, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's constant denial of Japan's history still poses a major hindrance to deepening mutual understanding between the two peoples, especially since this year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

As Xi rightfully pointed out in his speech, the crimes committed by the Japanese militarists during Japan's war of aggression should never be covered up. The Abe administration should take history as a mirror and show heart-felt repentance for the dark days in its history.

Only by so doing will a good momentum in people-to-people exchanges be sustained.

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