The regional issues, along with the "pivot to Asia" policy of the US, have complicated the regional security landscape further. The US has always maintained a strong presence in Asia, but now it is boosting its scale as the center of international relations shifts from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

China's rise obviously plays a key role in this respect. In 2001, China's GDP was $1.15 trillion, the sixth highest in the world. But by 2011, it had become the world's second-largest economy with its GDP reaching $7.3 trillion, equal to 49 percent of the US'. Understandably, China's unprecedented rise has caused concerns among the US, as well as some of its Asian neighbors. Given the major economic fallout of the Sino-Japanese dispute and some other countries' not-so friendly attitude toward China, many people now wonder whether Asia will be able to maintain peace and stability and preserve its status as the center of global growth.

The restoration of friendly ties between Beijing and Tokyo will, no doubt, have a far-reaching impact on regional peace and stability. In fact, Beijing is ready to resolve the Diaoyu dispute through dialogue and consultation. The problem is that Japan is turning decisively to the right, with its right-wing activists fueling nationalistic passions against China and thus weakening the efforts to maintain peace and violating the principles enshrined in the four political documents signed by the two countries.

Long-term peaceful and friendly cooperation, however, remains the only choice for the two countries, as well as for the Asian community. Delivering a keynote speech at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2013, President Xi Jinping said: "Peace, like air and sunshine, is hardly noticed when people are benefiting from it, but none of us can live without them." Without peace, development is out of the question, he added.

Xi's words reflect China's diplomatic direction and represent the wishes of the people of China, Japan and other Asian countries. Peace and development is the trend of the times, and Asian countries have to make concerted efforts to overcome their differences and strive for peace, stability and common development of Asia and beyond.

The author is vice-chairman of the Institute of Strategy and Management, Beijing, and a member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

(China Daily 04/13/2013 page5)