Towards a New Partnership

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations, and while Confucius says カジノ シークレット 勝てる Analects that at the age of forty one's confusion is cleared, much confusion still surrounds relations between Japan and China.

At the National People's Congress (NPC) in March, Premier Wen Jiabao announced that China aims to achieve economic growth of 7.5% this year, indicating that the emphasis from now on will be on stability and the quality of growth. China will also have a new leader this autumn. If growth is to be maintained, the new leader of this great power will have to continue to steer a course of international cooperation. Having grown to become the "workshop of the world" through a focus on added-profit tradカジノ シークレット 勝てるowered by labor-intensive industry, however, China will also experience a variety of rapid and complex structural changes over the next decade as it confronts challenges such as the destructive environmental effects of development, thカジノ シークレット 勝てるrojected decline of its labor force within the next few years, and the emergence of an increasingly borderless economy.

The time has also come for the development of a new partnership in Sino-Japanese relations over the coming decade. We must move beyond the traditional focus on friendship to develop stronger ties leading to more mutually beneficial relations. Government leaders use thカジノ シークレット 勝てるhrase "mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests" to describe the Sino-Japanese relationship, and we need to find more concrete ways of developing such a relationship. While at thカジノ シークレット 勝てるolitical level relations can sometimes be a struggle for prestige, people in thカジノ シークレット 勝てるrivate sector tend to be morカジノ シークレット 勝てるragmatic and frank with one another. The first thing that needs to be done, therefore, is to strengthen interaction in thカジノ シークレット 勝てるrivate sector and economic sphere.

In the years ahead, China is likely to see a shift from a state-led heavy industrial orientation to growth in retail, transport, services, and so on in thカジノ シークレット 勝てるrivate sector. Having trodden exactly the samカジノ シークレット 勝てるath, there will be many areas in which we will be able to work together with our Chinese counterparts. The business world thus has a major role to play in building a new relationship between Japan and China.

There is a saying in China that goes, "When you drink the water, remember with gratitude the man who dug the well." And now is the time for us to sink a new well and develop a new partnership between Japan and China founded on mutually beneficial relations.