Official: China-Japan at new starting point

Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said Sunday that China and Japan were at a "new starting point" in relations following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Beijing in October, Reuters reported. "The two countries have already broken the five-year-long political stalemate and brought bilateral ties to the normal track of development," Tang told Fuyushiba Tetsuzo, Japanese minister of land, infrastructure and transport, who is visiting China, according to state media. During Abe's visit, both parties said they could mend the rift created by Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, making visits to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine. Tang elaborated on this, saying that China and Japan should work to solidify political and economic ties and calling on Tokyo to "properly handle" its links with Taiwan and "historical issues" – presumably the country's past militarism.