Li Changchun (R), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, shakes hands with Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe, 1994 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, in Beijing Sept. 11, 2006. [Xinhua Photo]

"Mr. Oe has made unremitting efforts in opposing the revival of Japanese militarism, promoting peace and enhancing cultural exchanges between China and Japan," said Li Changchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Li described Oe as "an old friend of the Chinese people," suggesting the peoples of China and Japan join hands to maintain peace in the region and the world. "This is not only the greatest aspiration, but also the greatest interests of the two peoples," Li said.

Oe, 1994 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and best known for writing semi-autobiographical prose about Japan's disorientation after World War II, is taking on his fifth visit to China from Sept. 9 to 15.

The 71-year-old Nobel laureate is an outspoken pacifist and has held rallies to defend the 1947 constitution that says Japan forever renounces war.

Oe had made his first China visit in the 1960s, when the then Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Chen Yi met with him.

Japan and China enjoys a long history of friendly exchanges and should cherish bilateral friendship pioneered by the late leaders of the two countries, said Oe.

Oe urged the two countries to increase the exchanges between the two peoples, the young in particular, to make Japan-China relations move ahead.

Oe will also visit a museum on Nanjing Massacre in east China's Jiangsu Province. The massacre occurred in December 1937 when Japanese aggression troops occupied Nanjing, the then capital of China, and killed over 300,000 Chinese.