Japan's change of power makes China's top 10 foreign news for 2009+

BEIJING, Dec. 31 Kyodo -
Japan's ''historic change of power'' following the landslide victory by the
Democratic Party of Japan in the August general election was among the top 10
international news items for 2009 chosen by the People's Daily and China Radio
International, the daily reported Thursday.

The People's Daily quoted the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama as
saying that the DPJ-led government will pursue a ''close but equal'' Japan-U.S.
alliance and build reliable relations with other Asian economies such as China
and South Korea as part of efforts to create ''an East Asia community.''
Along with Japan, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic
of China on Oct. 1, North Korea's withdrawal from the six-party
denuclearization talks and the summits of the Group of 20 major developed and
emerging economies in London and Pittsburg, the United States, made the top 10
news items for 2009.
The official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party and the state-run radio
station also picked the worldwide spread of the H1N1 influenza in the spring
and U.N. climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.
The 60th anniversary of the founding of China, climate change and the H1N1 flu
also made the top 10 news items for 2009 in a poll conducted by the China
Daily, the English-language paper said Thursday.
U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to China in November, the July 5 riot in
Xinjiang, China's 8 percent economic growth and the approval in November of
construction of a Disneyland theme park in Shanghai were among the top 10 news
items, the daily said, citing a poll of readers in China and abroad.
==Kyodo
2009-12-31 21:00:13