Chinese report by Lv Wangshu, CENEWS

BEIJING, Jun. 14-Vice Minister Zhao Yingmin met with Mochiduki Yoshio, the Acting Secretary General of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), in Beijing today. The two sides exchanged views on environmental issues of common concern and the cooperation of the two countries in the environmental protection field.

Zhao extended welcome to Mochiduki Yoshio on behalf of Secretary of the Leading Party Members’ Group Li Ganjie. He said as neighboring countries, China and Japan share similar cultural backgrounds and social customs. The bilateral cooperation in the environment field is consistent with the fundamental interests of the two peoples and represents a pressing need of the era.

At a crucial stage for realizing the green transformations and pushing for the environmental improvement, China is currently making strenuous efforts to promote ecological progress, in order to achieve the transformation of environmental management to make it systematic, science-based, law-governed, delicate, and IT-based. China has made new strides in protecting the environment and turned it better. However, the country still faces daunting environmental pollution, especially, China is still confronted with challenging tasks in air pollution control. Japan has encountered the same problems in the industrialization process, with plenty of experience and practices worthy of being learned by China, said Zhao. He hoped the two sides would continue to deepen bilateral cooperation, provide help and support for bettering China’s air quality and together facilitate the improvement of the regional environmental quality.

The environmental cooperation in a myriad of areas between China and Japan dates back to a long time ago and has yielded abundant fruits, added Zhao. The two sides have been engaging in the regional and global environmental affairs with a sense of responsibility and positive attitudes, and contributed to the regional and even global environmental protection. We stand ready to work with the Japanese side and further strengthen the bilateral cooperation on and the bilateral exchanges of the environmental industries and technologies by learning Japan’s experience in green transformations and delicacy environmental management.

Mochiduki Yoshio appreciated Zhao’s hospitality and appreciated the achievements of the environmental cooperation between the two countries, especially in the area of air pollution control. He said, the Japanese side is ready to share its experience in pollution control and environmental management, further the communications and cooperation with the Chinese side regarding China’s preparations for the COP 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2020, and make contributions to the environmental cooperation with mutual benefits and win-win outcomes. In the meantime, Japan stands ready to discuss with the Chinese side the possibility to cooperate on eco-environmental conservation under the Belt and Road initiative and implement the 2030 sustainable development agenda.

The two sides also exchanged views and had discussions on biodiversity conservation, mercury pollution control, and marine environmental protection.