A senior Chinese politician said Friday it would not be too difficult to pave the way for mending bilateral relations with Japan if Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stopped visiting war-related Yasukuni Shrine and his government admitted there is a sovereignty dispute over the Senkaku Islands.
Yu Zhengsheng, the fourth-highest ranking member of the Communist Party of China, told a group of Japanese ruling party lawmakers in Beijing that the two are major conditions for resuming dialogue with the Abe government, one of the lawmakers said.
"The current difficult situation is created by Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe. If he grows out of his former self and he reaches out to China, it will not be impossible for China to respond," former Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, a member of the group, quoted Yu as saying during the meeting.