It goes without saying that the official visit to Japan at the end of last Nov. by the PLA Navy's missile destroyer "Shenzhen" marks a major event worthy to be remembered. As China and Japan shrugged off the "political haze" shadowing their relations in the past, the defense exchange has ushered in a new beginning.

　　The realization of reciprocal visits by the state leaders of both countries in recent years has contributed to the remarkable improvement of the bilateral relations between the two states, and what is more is that the state leaders of both sides echoed each other in underscoring the efforts to step up exchange and cooperation in every field including that of security and to build up mutual trust in the security sector, which helped to create a sound and favorable atmosphere for opening a new dimension in terms of defense exchange. By now, a multilayer defense exchange mechanism has been tentatively put in place between China and Japan.

　　Top level exchanges: Sept. 2006 saw the visit to China by the minister of the Japanese Defense Agency Shigeru Ishiba, which was followed by the return visit to Japan by the then Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan in August 2007. Then, the chief of Joint Staff of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces Saito Takashi visited China on invitation in Feb. 2008.

　　Consultations between the defense ministry and agency or two countries: China and Japan have held 8 rounds of consultations ever since the August of 1996.

　　Reciprocal visits by the two armed forces: The visit of the Chinese warships to Japan in Nov. last year will be reciprocated by the return visit to China by the Japanese warship sometime within the running year, which marks a monumental step taken by China and Japan in the respect of China-Japan defense exchanges and likewise a momentous stride made by the two countries in the endeavor of building up mutual trust in the defense sector.

　　Personnel exchanges: The National Defense University of China and Japan Institute for Defense Studies have already set up an exchange mechanism to send military students to each other's setup to study. Since 2003, China has sent five young and middle-aged military officers to the Japan Institute for Defense Studies for a 10-month study tour, on the part of Japan, seven middle rank military officers have been sent to study in the College of Defense Studies of the National Defense University since 1999. In addition, the two forces also exchanged military delegations or scholars to visit each other's country or engage in academic exchanges.

　　The establishment of the strategic and mutually beneficial relationship between China and Japan is a consensus arrived at by the state leaders of both countries, while enhancing defense exchange and cooperation and building up mutual trust in defense affairs should be an important ingredient of the strategic and mutually beneficial relationships between China and Japan. Practice has vindicated that the nucleus issue of enhancing strategic mutual trust rests with maintaining the long-term sound and stable development of the bilateral relations. While in the degree of mutual trust strategically resides the linchpin factor that decides the development of the defense relations between two countries, which is even true for China and Japan. 2008 marks the 30th anniversary for the Sino-Japanese Peace and Friendship Treaty, and we wish that China and Japan will open an encouraging new prospect in defense exchange under the driving force of the reciprocal visits between high-level leaders of the two countries and two armed forces.

　　By Jiang Xinfeng (research fellow of the World Military Research Department of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Chinese People's Liberation Army)

　　(May 6, PLA Daily)                                                    Editor: Dong Zhaohui