On the afternoon of September 21, 2008, Chinese President Hu Jintao met at the Great Hall of the People with a delegation from Japan’s Japan-China Association on Economy and Trade (JCAET) headed by JCAET honorary president Fujio Mitarai and president Fujio Cho.

Hu expressed gratitude for Japan’s aid after the Sichuan earthquake and for its support of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, praising the JCAET for "important contributions to the promotion of economic and trade cooperation and the improvement and development of bilateral ties".

"The Chinese government attaches great importance to ties with Japan and would work with the country to increase strategic trust, deepen cooperation of mutual benefit, expand humanities exchanges and enhance coordination and cooperation in regional and international affairs, under the guidance of the two countries' four political documents," Hu said. "China is willing to handle sensitive issues appropriately together with Japan so as to push for sustained, in-depth development of Sino-Japanese strategic relations of mutual benefit," he added.

Hu said the two countries are highly complementary in economy and to further deepen bilateral economic and trade cooperation is of vital significance to achieving mutual benefit, win-win results and common development. Hu expressed hope that both sides will take a global perspective and continuously enhance cooperation on key areas including energy conservation and environmental protection, information and communications, high and new technology, disaster relief and prevention and post-disaster reconstruction. Hu urged both sides to actively cultivate new growth points in economic and trade cooperation and push Sino-Japanese cooperation in this field to a higher level, so as to contribute to steady growth, prosperity and development of the economy in Asia and the world as a whole.

Fujio Mitarai and Fujio Cho thanked President Hu for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with them. They congratulated China on the complete success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and expressed willingness to work with China to expand and deepen exchanges and cooperation in all areas and push forward Japan-China strategic reciprocal relations.

State Councilor Dai Bingguo, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming, Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Wan Jifei and other officials attended the meeting.