Speech of Secretary General Hu Yaobang at Banquet to Welcome Prime Minister Nakasone

Speech of Secretary General Hu Yaobang at Banquet to Welcome Prime Minister Nakasone

November 8, 1986

The Honorable, Your Excellency, Prime Minister Nakasone,

Distinguished Japanese Guests,

Friends and Comrades,

Your Excellency, the Prime Minister, has come in response to my invitation to the foundation-laying ceremony for the China-Japan Youth Exchange Center. This afternoon, we together broke ground on the building for those who will follow in the task of cultivating friendship between China and Japan. Now, in this hall, we have again gathered together. It is a great pleasure for me, and for all the Chinese comrades here, to express the Chinese people’s welcome to Your Excellency, the Prime Minister, and to our distinguished Japanese guests.  

Since Your Excellency, the Prime Minister, and I have come to know one another, we have had friendly meetings on many occasions. Just now, we have again, in a very amicable atmosphere, cordially exchanged opinions on issues of mutual concern. We both greatly value the sincere friendship already established between our two sides and regard such friendship as a microcosm of the friendly contacts between our two peoples and between the people of our two countries. We wish to strengthen and develop without cease this friendship together with friendly relations between our two countries.

Looking back on relations between our two countries in recent years, the Four Principles established by the leaders of our two countries – peace and friendship, equality and mutual benefit, mutual trust, and long-term stability-- have further entered the hearts of the people. People from all walks of life in both countries have devoted themselves to unremitting efforts in friendly cooperation between China and Japan, putting forth even more substantial results. Members from both sides of the China-Japan 21st Century Friendship Commission also have done much beneficial work to initiate even longer-term friendship between our two countries in the next century. As ample proof, today’s relationship of neighborly friendship between China and Japan has brought major benefits to both our countries and has played a positive role in safeguarding the peace of Asia and that of the world. People more and more clearly recognize that, beyond differences in social systems and ideologies, unwaveringly advancing friendship between China and Japan to the new century is a lofty mission that history has entrusted to our generation.

The development of friendly relations between our two countries is inseparable from the valuable contribution that Your Excellency, the Prime Minister, has made. Your Excellency has always possessed a firm conviction in regard to Sino-Japanese friendship and has poured a great deal of enthusiasm and hard work into it. In particular, it is on major issues touching on relations between our two countries that Your Excellency, with a high sense of responsibility and a statesman’s bearing, in a timely way has made wise decisions beneficial to the overall interest of friendship between both countries. We are greatly appreciative of this. It bears repeating here that all those from various walks of life in your country who have contributed to friendship between China and Japan are friends worthy of the Chinese people’s remembrance. They pledge their devotion to the sincere sentiments of Sino-Japanese friendship, together with the friendly feelings of the Chinese people toward the Japanese people, which will forever remain in the memory of our children and grandchildren.

Friends, comrades:

Next year will be the fifteenth anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, worthy of celebration together by the peoples of our two countries. Looking back at the past and looking ahead to the future, I am fully confident in the prospects for relations between our two countries. The historic change in contacts between China and Japan has given us abundant lessons and inspiration. The friendship and cooperation since the normalization of diplomatic relations have also amassed for us extremely valuable experience. That is, no matter what the circumstance, both of our two sides must treat the other with sincerity and trust each other. Both must adhere to the China-Japan Joint Statement and the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Both must painstakingly take good care of a situation of friendship that is hard to come by and promptly take care of problems. This way, we will be able continuously to promote sound forward development between both countries. We will be able to obtain even greater benefits for our two countries and peoples and make an even greater contribution to the peace and development of Asia and the world.

I now propose a toast:

To the prosperity of Japan and the happiness of the Japanese people,

To the long-term stability and development of neighborly friendship and cooperation,

To the health of His Excellency, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, and

To the health of Ambassador Yosuke Nakae and our Distinguished Japanese Guests, and that of the Friends and Comrades here,

Cheers!