Chinese academic sees Chinese, Japanese economies as complementary.

HONG KONG, March 20 Kyodo

An economy researcher at China's state-run social sciences academy said Tuesday that China and Japan complement each other economically and any diplomatic row between the two countries should not play a big role.

''The economic relationship between China and Japan should be further strengthened,'' Wang Tongsan, a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher, said while visiting Hong Kong. ''Generally speaking, we hope political factors do not affect the economic relationship between China and Japan. Both countries complement each other well economically, despite minor glitches.''

The academy is Beijing's highest academic research organization focusing on philosophy and social sciences.

Wang, head of the academy's Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's upcoming visit to Japan will ''hopefully strengthen economic connection and cooperation between the two states.''

Wen's visit, expected to start April 11, would be the first by a Chinese leader since Wen's predecessor Zhu Rongji paid a visit in 2000.

The relationship between the two countries had been warming up since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in September last year, but cooled again after his recent comments that ''comfort women'' were not coerced to be sex slaves during World War II.

Invited by the Foreign Correspondents' Club, Wang delivered a speech explaining China's economic development in 2007 with regards to the government's work report revealed by Wen earlier this month during the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, in Beijing.

He said China's economy is in a very good condition despite various problems.

Short term problems China faces, he said, include too-rapid growth of foreign investment, too many foreign reserves, a too-big foreign trade surplus and a too-rapid increase in real estate prices.

''Long term problems are structural, such as GDP growth lagging behind investment growth, disproportionate ratio of tertiary industry, widening income disparity between urban and rural residents, and failure to bring energy consumption and environmental protection within state targets,'' Wang said.

He added the toughest issue for government to tackle is how to raise rural residents' income to close the gap between farmers and urban salary earners.

Regarding the exchange rate of the Chinese currency, Wang said social stability is the priority concern for Beijing and he believes the rate should be determined by the market and by politicians.

Wen's economic work report gave a GDP growth forecast for about 8 percent from 2006, but Wang said the actual figure might end up near 11 percent.