At the invitation of the CPAFFC, headed by Mr. Kabashima Ikuo, Chiji (governor) of Kumamoto Ken (Japanese prefecture), a delegation formed by 7 Chijis of 7 Kens in Kyushu visited China from Sept. 2nd to 4th.  On Sept. 3rd, President Li Xiaolin met with the delegation.

President Li said, Kyushu is the nearest Japanese region from China. It ’s been a long time that Kyushu keeps promoting the friendly contact and pragmatic cooperation between the two countries, and has made positive efforts and valuable contribution to healthy and stable development of Sino-Japan relation.

President Li said, since the normalization of the diplomatic relations between China and Japan 42 years ago, with the joint efforts of the force of friendship from various circles of the two countries, Sino-Japanese relation has made considerable progress, and brought realistic benefits to two peoples. It also gave a great impetus to peace, stability and prosperity of world. At present, Sino-Japanese relation is facing the grim situation, which has negatively influenced the contact of all fields in vary degree. This is regrettable and must be turned around.

President Li said, as close neighboring countries, China and Japan must and have to be friendly to each other. Today is the 69th anniversary of China’s anti-Japanese War and the world’s anti-fascism war. Past experience, if not forgotten, can serve as a guide for the future. The two countries should remember the poor history, and face the future based on correct recognition on the history. The CPAFFC, serving as the national people’s organization especially engaged in non-governmental diplomatic works, would like to work with friendly forces including the Japanese local governments, to close the hearts’ distance of the two peoples, and enhance the mutual understanding and trust, so as to contribute to earlier improvement and development of the relation between the two countries.

Mr. Kabashima said, the Kens in Kyushu have rich friendly-to-China tradition, and were enthusiastic in developing friendly exchanges and cooperation with China. China is the largest target country for Kyushu’s trading. The rapid development of China brings precious opportunities to Kens in Kyushu. Under the difficult situation between the two countries, the people-to-people diplomacy undoubtedly will play an important role. The Kens in Kyushu will continuously promote the friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation at the people-to-people and local governmental level, to create conditions to remedy the relation of the two countries earlier.