A slump in business cooperation amid freezing political relations between China and Japan after the Diaoyu Islands disputes has imposed a new challenge for the two countries, Zhao Qizheng, former minister of the State Council Information Office, said Saturday at the 9th Beijing-Tokyo Forum in Beijing.

Special coverage

Zhao, also president of the School of Journalism, Renmin University of China, and former chairman of the foreign affairs committee of China's top political advisory body, warned that bilateral relations face more difficulties than that in 2006, before Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "ice-breaking" tour to alleviate the tensions.

The current deadlock in politics and economy has also affected people's exchanges as a poll released in August by China Daily and Japan's non-profit organization Genron NPO revealed that many Chinese and Japanese are pessimistic about the future of bilateral relations, said Zhao.

Zhao also praised the forum as it has become one of the successful platforms of the bilateral diplomatic relations and called on mutual efforts to continue with the forum in the future.

"We've known each other through and through during the past nine years," Zhao said. "The bilateral ties are undergoing the most difficult stage because of the Diaoyu Islands disputes...so more exchanges between the two governments and peoples are needed to tackle the current difficulty."

Zhao also congratulated Tokyo in the successful bidding of the 2020 Olympics.