Setback for China, Japan relations

[HenryTo]

Looks like Chinese-Japanese relations are strained yet again:
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Setback for China, Japan relations

BEIJING, China -- Relations between China and Japan appear to have suffered another setback following the surprise cancellation of a top-level meeting between political leaders.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi was to have met with Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday, but abruptly pulled out, citing pressing domestic issues in China.

On Tuesday, China's official Xinhua news agency said China was "extremely" dissatisfied with remarks repeatedly made by Japanese leaders on visiting a controversial war shrine.

Xinhua said comments on visits to the Yasukuni shrine -- which honors not only Japan's war dead but also some of its more notorious wartime leaders -- did not help improve bilateral relations.

"To our regret, during Vice Premier Wu Yi's stay in Japan, Japanese leaders repeatedly made remarks on visiting the Yasukuni Shrine that go against the efforts to improve Sino-Japanese relations," Xinhua quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan as saying.

"China is extremely unsatisfied with it."

This message was reinforced later by China's Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang.

"We believe a good atmosphere is needed for Wu Yi to visit ... The Japanese government, especially some leaders, do not have a correct understanding and unceasingly spread incorrect remarks regarding history," he told Reuters.

"We think it was very inappropriate to make those remarks while Vice Premier Wu Yi was visiting."

Wu had been on a scheduled eight-day trip to Japan aimed at helping repair tense relations between the two Asian powers.

Some Japanese officials are now calling for a "fuller explanation" of the cancelled meeting given that Wu is now proceeding Tuesday on a visit to Mongolia.

"There was no word of apology," Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Tuesday.

"Even though urgent duty may be unavoidable, there is supposed to be a word of apology, and without it a society cannot function," The Associated Press quotes him saying.

Other ministers also criticized the cancellation. Internal Affairs Minister Taro Aso called the cancellation "in terms of manners, lacked common sense."

But Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda called for calm, saying that such cancellations are common and that Tokyo saw no need for a detailed explanation.

"I don't see any need to go out of our way to find out the reason," AP reports Hosoda saying. "Japan-China relations are long term, broad and deep, including disputes."

Wu is Beijing's top-ranking woman and the most senior Chinese official to visit Japan since 2003.

Chinese protests

Relations between the Asian neighbors have soured after recent anti-Japan protests and violence in China.

Protesters have focussed on a school textbook approved by Japan's education ministry that China says whitewashes Japanese wartime atrocities.

Chinese demonstrators in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing have also rallied against Tokyo's bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

Japanese missions and the ambassador's residence in Beijing were pelted with rocks and eggs and Japanese restaurants were vandalized.

Many in Japan are unimpressed about Beijing's response to the protests, suggesting authoritiies have tacitly condoned the anti-Japanese sentiment.

In a recent nationwide poll conducted by the leading Yomiuri newspaper, 92 percent of respondents said they were unhappy with the way Beijing reacted to the disturbances.

Prime Minister Koizumi last visited the Yasukuni shrine in January last year and said last week he would make an "appropriate decision" on when to go again.

Earlier in the week, Wu told Japanese business officials that recent tensions were "a disadvantage to the development of economic and trade relations," and said that "both sides must work to quickly find a breakthrough."

"The current situation is wrong, and it goes against what the people of both countries wish for and what is beneficial to them," The Associated Press reported her saying.

China is Japan's biggest trading partner.

[spiderwang]

April 16,2005,there was a public parade agaist Japan in ShangHai,China.About 50 thousands people took part in it.It was grandiose,disordered and emotional.Some cars like TOYOTA and stores sells Japanese goods were destoyed.About 20 person were arrested by chinese police later.Brfore this parade,they had happened in other city in china,as Beijing,Nanjing,Wuhan,etc.The relationship between China and Japan is terribly.