Abe's new Cabinet urged to improve ties with Beijing

China is urging the new Japanese Cabinet led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was re-elected on Wednesday, to enact "positive" China policies and improve bilateral ties as it promised.

"We hope the new Japanese Cabinet adheres to the spirit of relevant documents and consensus, adopts positive China policies and takes concrete actions to fulfill its statement of improving China-Japan ties so as to work with China to push bilateral ties to advance in the right direction," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Thursday at a daily news briefing.

Abe, the leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, has been Japan's prime minister since December 2012.

At a news conference after the introduction of his new Cabinet, in which the prime minister retained all his ministers, Abe said he would like to work on building a consensus with opposition forces on his long-term goal of revising Japan's pacifist Constitution, adopted after World War II.

Hua said on Thursday that China has long insisted on developing its ties with Japan in the spirit of "learning from history and facing the future "on the basis of the four political documents and four-point principled consensus between the two neighbors.

"Stable and healthy development of China-Japan ties is in line with the fundamental interests of both countries and their people," Hua said.

"Abe has gained achievements in diplomacy during his last tenure. However, the lack of improvement in relations with Beijing has been a regret for him. So now he wants to make a breakthrough in relations," said Zhang Boyu, a researcher at the Institute of Japan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

There have been positive signals in bilateral ties recently, including Abe's attendance at a reception hosted by the Chinese embassy in Japan on Sept 28 to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Abe has also expressed hopes of holding a trilateral meeting among the leaders of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea within the year and receiving a visit from China's top leader.

However, a vice-minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China told reporters on Oct 21 that high-level visits between China and Japan should be based on the support of public opinion and understanding of the ordinary people.

Zhou Jin contributed to this story.

lixiaokun@chinadaily.com.cn