China has postponed a visit by Japan's defense chief and a port
call in Japan of a Chinese warship to protest Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to a controversial war shrine, a
Chinese Foreign Ministry
official said Tuesday.
"The Japanese leader's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine has hurt the
Chinese people's feelings and harmed Sino-Japanese relations," the
official said. "China believes that at this time it is not
appropriate to carry out these two activities."
A
China trip by the head of the Japan Defence Agency, Gen Nakatani,
was originally scheduled for late April, while a vessel of the
People's Liberation Army Navy was set to have visited Japan in
mid-May, he said.
Tuesday, nearly 190 Japanese lawmakers or proxies visited Tokyo's
Yasukuni war shrine en masse, despite simmering anger in Asia over
Koizumi's visit there two days ago.
Among the fresh visitors to Yasukuni were 91 members of parliament,
including a minister in Koizumi's cabinet, National Public Safety
Commission chief Jin Murai, and Taku Yamasaki, secretary-general of
the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
They were joined by representatives of 94 other lawmakers.
Taiwan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) joined
the chorus of protests.
(China
Daily April 24, 2002)