Title: Facing the Future, Promoting the Sustainable Development of China-Japan Friendship
During the May Day holiday, Japan once again became the most popular overseas tourist destination for Chinese tourists. This is reminiscent of the development process of Sino-Japanese relations in recent years. Once upon a time, there were a series of fierce confrontations and conflicts between the two countries over issues such as island sovereignty and historical understanding, and the people of both sides also harbored a certain degree of hatred and distrust towards each other.
However, should we allow this superficial nationalism to continue for future generations and become an invisible barrier to the friendship between the two peoples? The answer is clearly no. As an oriental country of wisdom and civilization, China and Japan have a long history of people-to-people exchanges, and have deep historical ties in the fields of poetry, calligraphy and painting, tea ceremony, and martial arts. Even if there have been some unpleasant historical entanglements, we should step out of the haze of history with an open and inclusive mind and jointly promote the direction of peace, friendship, and cooperation.
In recent years, the governments and nongovernmental organizations of the two countries have made unremitting efforts to repair and deepen Sino-Japanese relations. At the political level, the two sides have established various mechanisms for dialogue and exchange to maintain positive interaction on issues of common concern. At the economic and trade level, enterprises of the two countries are also actively exploring each other's markets and seeking mutual benefit and win-win results. At the cultural level, cultural exchanges between China and Japan are more frequent and extensive. These positive factors are steadily improving mutual understanding and trust between the two peoples.
We can definitely get a glimpse of this from the recent tourism boom in Japan. With a keen interest in Japanese culture, more and more Chinese tourists are willing to cross borders to experience traditional arts, fashion, and modern lifestyles. On the other hand, a large number of Japanese tourists come here to admire China's garden architecture, calligraphy and painting, and food and culture. The deepening of people-to-people exchanges and cultural exchanges is narrowing the distance between the two peoples, enhancing mutual understanding, and making "neighbors" no longer strangers to "otherness".
Of course, we cannot avoid the shadow that historical issues have cast on the relations between the two countries. War crimes, acts of aggression, are irrefutable historical facts. But are we caught up in endless blame and confrontation that does not help to heal our wounds or resolve our differences? A more realistic and rational approach is to confront the past while also focusing on the future in a spirit of tolerance and understanding.
Shaping and promoting the ultimate Sino-Japanese friendship will not be achieved overnight. It requires the governments and the people of both sides to work together with each other, deepen people-to-people exchanges, be objective and fair in history education, and balance the interests of each other. Each of us should be an ambassador of friendship, appreciating and respecting each other's culture with an open mind, and understanding and tolerating each other's differences with kindness. At the same time, we must also adhere to our own principles and bottom line, and avoid excessive accommodation that leads to self-misalignment.
Only in this way can the Chinese and Japanese peoples truly transcend the hatred and prejudice of the past and build a lasting and profound friendship while seeking common ground while reserving differences. This process will inevitably be tortuous and difficult, but as long as we have a broad and humble heart, we will surely be able to let the concept of Sino-Japanese friendship take root and blossom in the next generation. Let us all hope that the Sino-Japanese friendly spring will become warmer and brighter.