BEIJING (Kyodo) Chinese feel less optimistic about the future of Sino-Japanese relations compared with last year, with unresolved historical and territorial disputes between the two countries remaining thorny issues, according to a joint survey conducted in both countries released Wednesday.
The survey, by Chinese state-run newspaper the China Daily and Japanese think tank Genron NPO, polled 1,589 Chinese from five major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, and more than 1,000 students from the country's top five universities.
It found that 51.2 percent of ordinary Chinese were "optimistic" or "relatively optimistic" about the future of bilateral relations, according to a report by the newspaper on its Web site. This was a fall of 29.8 points from the number who described themselves the same way last year.