Ｓｔａｔｅ Ｃｏｕｎｃｉｌｌｏｒ Ｔａｎｇ Ｊｉａｘｕａｎ Ｍｅｅｔｓ ｗｉｔｈ Ｔａｄａｈｉｒｏ Ｓｅｋｉｍｏｔｏ ａｎｄ Ｈｉｓ Ｐａｒｔｙ

At the invitation of the CPAFFC， Tadahiro Sekimoto， former chairman of the Board of Nippon Electric Company (NEC) and his party paid a visit to Beijing from May 23 to 25， 2005. State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan met with， and Hu Qili， former vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference， entertained him and his party. Tadahiro Sekimoto paid an official call on Cui Liru， president of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

On the afternoon of May 24， State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan met with Tadahiro Sekimoto and his party in Zhongnanhai. Tang expressed his appreciation of the contributions made by NEC to the development of China’s electronics and information industry， particularly to the Shanghai Huahong 909 semi-conductor chip project.

Tang pointed out， recently Sino-Japanese relations have met the most serious difficulties since the normalization of bilateral diplomatic relations. Proceeding from the overall consideration of maintaining Sino-Japanese friendship and peace and stability in Asia and the world at large， China has done a great deal for improving Sino-Japanese relations. At his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Jakarta on April 23， President Hu Jintao put forward the important five-point proposal for promoting a healthy and steady development of bilateral relations. The two countries should persistently regard each other as cooperative partners who are willing to jointly take the road of peaceful development， give full play to the traditional advantages of bilateral friendly cooperation， and make concerted efforts to contribute to peace and stability in Asia， and find the convergence point of common interests in this process.

Tadahiro Sekimoto expressed his thanks to State Councillor Tang for meeting with him in the midst of his pressing affairs. He said， in the past 30 years since he visited China for the first time in 1972， in cooperation with China and supported and helped by the Chinese friends， NEC has completed dozens of projects in China including the Shanghai Huahong 909 semi-conductor chip project. Now his greatest aspiration is that Asian economic integration can be realized as early as possible and the Asian economic circle will be established. As long as Asian countries unite and cooperate with one another and become stronger， Asia will become the core of the world’s economic development.

Tang said， when Deng Xiaoping visited Japan in 1978， he met with the late Konosuke Matsushita， founder of the Japan Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.， Ltd. At that time Mr. Matsushita said， the 21st century is the Asia century and Asian economy will make great contributions to the development of the world economy. Now， Asia is facing an important opportunity of development. The process of East Asia cooperation is accelerating. Malaysia and some other Asian countries have put forth the idea of convening the East Asia Summit Meeting. On this question China’s stand has always been open and aboveboard. China supports strengthening of cooperation in East Asia and also welcomes the United States to play a constructive， not a destructive， role in it. Tang hoped that Tadahiro Sekimoto would make new contributions to promoting the Asian economic integration.