Japan's recent move of "purchasing" the Diaoyu Islands has violated the important understanding and common ground for bilateral relations.
The move was a serious challenge over China's sovereignty, leading to widespread anger among the Chinese public.
During the negotiations on the normalization of China-Japan relations in 1972 and on the signing of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1978, the then leaders of the two countries, acting in the larger interest of China-Japan relations, reached an important understanding and common ground on "leaving the issue of the Diaoyu Islands to be resolved later."
This opened the door to the normalization of China-Japan relations and was followed by tremendous progress in those relations as well as stability and tranquility in East Asia in the following 40 years.
But now, Japan's continued provocative actions over the Diaoyu Islands have violated the principle that the two countries had agreed on.
Talking about the Diaoyu islands, China's late leader Deng Xiaoping said in 1978 that "We believe that we should set the issue aside for a while if we cannot reach agreement on it. It is not an urgent issue and can wait for a while. If our generation do not have enough wisdom to resolve this issue, the next generation will have more wisdom, and I am sure that they can find a way acceptable to both sides to settle this issue."
When meeting Suzuki Zenko, a member of the lower house of the Japanese Diet from the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party on May 11, 1979, Deng said that consideration may be given to joint development of the resources adjacent to the Diaoyu Islands without touching upon its territorial sovereignty.
