China official urges Japan to work with Beijing on economic crisis+

TOKYO, March 31 Kyodo -
Li Changchun, who ranks fifth in the Communist Party of China, called on Japan
on Tuesday to join hands with China to work together in overcoming the global
financial crisis, stressing the need to establish a new international
cooperation framework.
''The unprecedented financial crisis is having a deep impact on people's daily
lives,'' Li told a gathering of Japanese and Chinese political and business
leaders in Tokyo. ''No country can tackle this alone and we need all nations to
work together.''
Noting that Japan and China, as the world's second- and third-largest
economies, are both dependent on trade and holding large foreign reserves, Li
stressed that by working together the two neighbors would be capable of leading
the world out of the economic crisis.
He also gave assurances that he was ''filled with confidence'' that the
''long-term fundamentals for growth of the Chinese economy remain unchanged.''
Meanwhile, Li implicitly criticized the current U.S.-centered international
financial system by saying it is necessary to create a ''new order which is
fair and just,'' apparently in mind of Beijing's demand that it be given more
say at the International Monetary Fund.
Li, a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, is in Japan on a
weeklong trip since Sunday as part of a series of high-level exchanges between
the two countries.
In addition to his meetings with Prime Minister Taro Aso and Foreign Minister
Hirofumi Nakasone earlier this week, Li also visited major Japanese companies
in the automobile and printing industries.
He is scheduled to experience Japanese culture in the ancient city of Kyoto and
plans to visit Kobe to learn about its recovery from the devastation of the
1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake for reference in rebuilding Sichuan Province,
which was hit by a major quake last year.
==Kyodo