China Says Relations With Japan at 'New Starting Point'

Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan, who in September said Abe Shinzo would have to behave himself on the Yasukuni Shrine issue as a precondition for a meeting with the Chinese president after becoming prime minister, told a Japanese minister that China and Japan are at a “new starting point.”

“The two countries have already broken the five-year-long political stalemate and brought bilateral ties to the normal track of development,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted Tang as telling visiting Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Fuyushiba Tetsuzo.

“Standing at a new starting point, the two sides should work closely to add momentum to the long-term and stable development of their relations,” Tang said. [Reuters]