China-Japan ties are gaining momentum with increasing exchanges in all areas, yet "the basis remains unstable", Premier Li Keqaing said on Tuesday.

There is still lots of work to put the China-Japan relationship back on track, Li told Chinese and Japanese entrepreneurs and former senior officials, including Japan's former prime minister Yasuo Fukuda and China's former vice-premier Zeng Peiyan.

The businesspeople and former officials, from China, the world's second-largest economy, and Japan, the third-largest, were part of the second round of dialogue in Beijing following the first one held last November in Tokyo.

The Premier called for the sustainable improvement and development of bilateral ties along the spirit of "using the history as a mirror and facing the future".

Li spoke positively of the efforts made by businesspeople and former officials to push forward China-Japan communications and cooperation, saying such dialogue mechanisms were expected to decrease uncertainty factors of bilateral ties and strengthen the public will of improving ties.

The Japanese representatives said that Li has pointed the direction of improving and developing Japan-China ties, and both sides will make joint efforts to boost mutual understandings and cooperation.