Chinese naval ship leaves for Japan call

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-21 21:57

A Chinese naval ship left Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province Wednesday morning for a port call to Japan, the first such visit in the history of the naval forces of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The Chinese missile destroyer "Shenzhen" will visit Japan from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. [Xinhua]

 
 
 
ZHANJIANG, Guangdong -- A Chinese naval ship left here Wednesday morning for a port call to Japan, the first such visit in the history of the naval forces of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
The missile destroyer "Shenzhen" will visit Japan from November 28 to December 1, at the invitation of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Rear Admiral Xiao Xinnian, vice chief of staff of the South China Sea Fleet of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, headed 345 naval officials and soldiers on the trip.
The South China Sea Fleet held a warm seeing-off celebration at Zhanjiang, a port city in south China's Guangdong Province.
During the four-day stay in Japan, Chinese naval officials and soldiers will conduct military exchanges and entertainment activities with their counterparts from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.
The two sides will also visit each other's naval ships, and the two military bands will give joint performances for citizens in Tokyo.
In addition, the "Shenzhen" will be open to the public.
The visit is being conducted with the consensus of the two countries' government and defense leaders, aiming at promoting the exchange and mutual trust between China and Japan in the defense area, said a senior official from the Foreign Affairs office of China's Defense Ministry.
It is an important activity in the year 2007, which marks the 35th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, said the official.
The landmark visit, following the Japanese tour by Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan in late August, opens a new page in the history of the often rocky bilateral relations, according to Professor Liu Jiangyong of Tsinghua University, and Rear Admiral Yang Yi, an expert at the PLA University of National Defense.
Cao and his then Japanese counterpart Masahiko Komura agreed in the August visit, the first by a Chinese military chief in nearly a decade, that the two sides should invite each other's maritime forces to exchange visits.
The visit, the first by the PLA Navy since its founding in April 1949, is "not only significant for the two navy forces, but also a vital part of the relations between the two countries," said Yang.
It will exert positive influence on the China-Japan defense relations, avoiding strategic misjudgment and safeguard the stability and peace of the Asia-Pacific region, especially Northeast Asia, and the world at large, Yang said.
Liu saw the visit as a symbol of the improving mutual trust between the two sides in the area of defense, which will "help advance the establishment of strategic, mutually-beneficial Sino-Japanese security relations".
The visit could play a unique and irreplaceable role in promoting Japanese's knowledge and goodwill toward China, and changing false impressions created by a lack of mutual understanding, Liu said.
The "Shenzhen" is a modern missile destroyer, designed and made by China. It has visited 13 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe since its acceptance into service in April 1999.
China and Japan first planned naval exchanges in October 2000. However, due to former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's persistent visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Class-A war criminals are among those honored, China postponed in April 2002 the visit by then Japanese Defence Agency Director-General Gen Nakatani as well as a Chinese naval visit to Japan. The issue of visits to the Yasukuni Shrine has been a key source of tension between China and Japan. The plan has remained dormant until now.
Experts said the Japanese side pins more expectation on the naval ship visit, seeking a breakthrough with neighbouring countries with such gestures and to improve its own image.
Though bilateral relations are warming, obstacles still lie in the way of further development of ties between China and Japan.
"The problems could not be solved through one or two visits," said Yang, calling for the exchanges to proceed in an orderly and gradual way.