Japan, China Leaders to Work for New Levels of Cooperation

BEIJING — Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita of Japan and Premier Li Peng of China pledged Thursday to work to bring relations between their countries to new levels of friendship and cooperation.

The heads of government in East Asia’s two most powerful nations met for nearly 3 1/2 hours Thursday afternoon in a “very friendly and relaxed and warm atmosphere,” according to a Japanese official who spoke on the condition that he not be identified.

Takeshita committed 810 billion yen (about $6.1 billion) in low-interest loans for 1990-95 to help with China’s modernization, the Japanese official said.

Li, speaking Thursday evening at a welcoming banquet in the Great Hall of the People, said that since the signing of a Sino-Japanese Peace and Friendship Treaty 10 years ago, ties between the two countries have improved and brought important benefits to both sides despite some “twists and turns.”

Relations between Japan and China in recent years have been strained by controversies involving Japan’s aggression against China in World War II, trade imbalances and links between Japan and Taiwan. China views Taiwan as a breakaway province.

China has protested vehemently on occasions when Japanese conservatives have sought to minimize Japan’s wartime aggression. Relations also have been aggravated by a lengthy court battle over the ownership of a student dormitory in Kyoto claimed by both Taiwan and China.

China has emphasized the dormitory issue because it relates to Japan’s recognition of Beijing as the legitimate government of all China, including Taiwan as well as the mainland. The dormitory issue is still before Japan’s Supreme Court, but China recently has stopped calling attention to it.

Trade between the two countries, which totaled $15.6 billion last year, is now roughly in balance.

The two leaders also discussed the two countries’ perceptions of the Soviet Union, the situation on the Korean Peninsula and prospects for peace in Cambodia, the Japanese official said. He offered no details.

Takeshita invited Li to visit Japan next spring, “when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom,” and Li accepted, the Japanese official said.

Takeshita is scheduled to meet today with Deng Xiaoping, China’s most powerful leader, and with President Yang Shangkun and Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang.