BEIJING, April 18 (UPI) -- A senior Chinese political adviser called Tuesday for a warming of relations with Japan and an end to disputed visits to a Japanese war shrine.
Jia Qinglin, a Communist Party official, made the remarks at a meeting with a delegation of the Japanese Council for the Promotion of International Trade in Beijing, the state Xinhua news agency reported.
"The current status of the Sino-Japanese ties isn't in accord with the basic interests of the people of the two counties, nor does it meet the expectations of the international community," Jia said. "They should be changed as soon as possible."
The relationship between China and Japan has been frosty in the past four years due to Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including several major World War II criminals.
