Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday, "Japan's
newly approved middle school history textbooks try to exculpate
Japan's militarism and severely hurt the feeling of its victims.
The textbook issue is not Japan's internal
affairs."??
He said the textbooks compiled by right-wing groups obscure
Japan's militarism, justify and glorify Japan's militarist past and
beautify its invasions.
"It is defiant of human justice and conscientiousness, and
causes severe harm to people from Asian countries including China,"
Qin told yesterday's regular press conference.
The textbook issue affects the relations between Japan and its
neighboring countries. It will be vehemently condemned by people
from all Asian countries that were victimized by Japan, including
the Chinese.
"We seriously urge the Japanese government to honestly honor its
commitment of expressing remorse for its militaristic history, and
take effective measures to eliminate the odious impact of the
issue, so as to win trust from Asian people," Qin said.
The Japanese government announced Tuesday that all the eight
textbooks submitted for approval?were qualified, yet among
them?were those compiled by right-wing groups?that deny
or beautify Japanese aggression during World War II.
"The textbook issue largely determines whether Japan can
appropriately treat its militaristic history of aggression and
instill in its young citizens a right perception of that history,"
Qin said.
Because Japan continuously harms China's interests and hurts
Chinese feelings on these issues, Chinese people are strongly
dissatisfied with Japan. "We hope Japan can seriously treat the
Chinese people's concern and properly settle the history issues
that relate to the Chinese people's feelings," he said.
As for some Chinese people who expressed their strong
dissatisfaction in different forms over Japan's wrong stance on
history issues, the spokesman said, "We hope they can take rational
ways to express their feelings."
Qin also urged Japan to be prudent on the East China Sea
issue.
??
He noted that China and Japan have not reached any agreement on
boundary demarcations in the East China Sea or on exploration and
exploitation of oil and gas resources there. He called for Japan to
pay due attention to the fact, and not to take any action to
complicate the situation.????
Qin said China always holds that the issue be addressed through
dialogue and friendly consultation.
"In a show of sincerity, China has proposed shelving the dispute
and joint development of resources in the region, which is the only
correct approach that conforms to the common interests of the two
sides," Qin said.
He said that Japan should not try to impose its own proposition
on China, and urged the Japanese government to act prudently and
prevent worsening of the situation by taking any unilateral
action.
Turning to the renminbi issue, Qin delivered a sharp rebuke to
the US Senate's threat to impose economic sanctions if Beijing
fails to change its current currency policy.
He said the latest analysis by the International Monetary Fund
showed that China's currency does not appear undervalued.
"When determining whether the currency is or is not undervalued
you do not only take into consideration bilateral trade but
multilateral trade as well," he said.
"China has trade surpluses with the United States yet the
country is experiencing a big trade deficit with many of its Asian
trading partners," he said, adding that the United States should
adjust its economic imbalance by looking at its own reasons.
China saw faster import increases last year while trade was
basically balanced and tremendous reform work was done to improve
the renminbi exchange rate mechanism.
He said China is willing to settle any trade disputes with the
United States through equal negotiations so as to push forward the
healthy and stable development of the bilateral trade.
In another development, Qin said that China will gradually make
donations in cash to the World Food Program (WFP) based on its
capability.
"China is still a developing country. We are not rich. We still
have 29 million people living in poverty," he said.
However, Qin said since there are still 850 million people in
the world who are threatened with starvation, China is ready to
make donations to the WFP based on its capability.
"China is ready to join hands with the WFP to make contributions
to reducing world poverty," he said.
The food aid organization of the United Nations became
operational in 1963. It provides relief assistance to victims of
natural and man-made disasters, and supplies food aid to people in
developing countries with the aim of stimulating self-reliant
communities.
WFP started to offer free food aid to China since 1979. The
organization's Executive Director James T. Morris said in December
last year when visiting China that China has made great
achievements in securing its food supply and the WFP planned to
stop free food aid to China by the end of 2005.
Turning to the United Nations, Qin said China supports reforms
of the UN Security Council, but said priority should be given to
increasing representation of developing countries.
Qin said the reform of the UN is of great importance and should
help build solidarity among member countries.
He said the consensus-seeking process should be characterized by
wide and patient discussions by every country.
He said such discussions are the foundation of the UN and should
be a priority when dealing with important issues.
He said to force the development of immature proposals would
hurt the solidarity and authority of the UN Security Council.
Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Wang Guangya said on
Wednesday China supports reforms of the Security Council, but "is
not in favor of setting an artificial time limit for the Security
Council reform and still less of forcing through any immature
proposals lacking consensus in the form of a vote."
Turning to Iraq, Qin said China is glad to note the recent
progress achieved in the war-worn country's transitional process in
politics.
Iraq's Transitional National Assembly elected Kurdish leader
Jalal Talabani Wednesday as the new president for the transitional
period. Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite who was finance minister in the
outgoing government, and Sunni leader Ghazi Yawar, a former
president, were appointed as the first and second vice
presidents.
The forming of the three-member presidential council finally put
an end to the long haggling between the winning Shiite and Kurd
blocs and lawmaker said a new government will be established next
week.
Qin said China is willing to further promote friendly
cooperation with the Iraqi transitional government and will
continue to support the reconstruction of Iraq.
Moving on to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Qin vowed that
China would continue to make efforts to restore six-party talks as
soon as possible, calling for the concerned parties to show
flexibility, sincerity and good will.
Qin said that China had a long and deep exchange of views with
Kang Sok-ju, the first vice minister of foreign affairs of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea, during his visit to China
this week, in order to promote peace and dialogue and push forward
the involved parties to take substantial measures to reopen the
talks.
Qin stressed that China's position on a nuclear-free Korean
Peninsula remains unchanged and that China will continue to make
efforts to promote dialogue and consultation to safeguard peace and
stability on the peninsula.
With regard to the ongoing China visit by Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe Velez, Qin said it will further promote friendly
cooperation between the two countries.
Uribe arrived in Beijing Wednesday morning, starting his
four-day state visit to China as the guest of President Hu
Jintao. This is his first visit to China after assuming
presidency in 2002.
China and Colombia enjoy sound cooperative relations, said the
spokesman. He said long-term cooperation between the two countries
will be enhanced by Uribe's China tour.
President Hu held talks with Uribe Wednesday afternoon. Qin said
the two leaders agreed to expand exchanges and cooperation and try
to forge new Sino-Colombian ties in the new century.
China and Colombia established diplomatic ties in 1980. "The two
countries have enjoyed smooth development of bilateral ties in the
past 25 years, with friendly cooperation growing steadily in
various fields and sound cooperation maintained in international
affairs," Qin said.
"Both governments attach importance to developing bilateral
ties," he said.
With concerted efforts, he said, Sino-Colombian relations will
be promoted continuously.
Turning to Sino-Indian relations, Qin said China is willing to
expand trade and economic cooperation with India, including the
establishment of a free trade area between the two countries.
He said the two countries' economies are mutually complementary
and China hopes to broaden the trade and economic cooperation on
the basis of equality and mutual benefits.
Qin announced Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo will pay a
state visit to China from April 14 to 17 at the invitation of
President Hu.
Also according to the spokesman, Jia
Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),
will attend the annual conference of the Boao Forum of Asia (BFA)
on April 22-24 in Boao, a tranquil town on the eastern coast of
south China's Hainan
Province.
??
Qin said that at the invitation of the BFA, Jia will address the
conference as a keynote speaker, and will also meet related leaders
and delegates from other countries attending the conference.
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, CRI.com April 8,
2005)