The Chinese people, who also suffered during World War II, made
important contributions to the victory of the anti-fascist war, a
Chinese State Council official said Tuesday in Tel Aviv at a
seminar marking the 60th WWII anniversary.
Minister Zhao Qizheng of the?State Council Information
Office told Chinese and Israeli participants that Japan deployed
most of its troops on the battleground in China during the war, in
which more than half of the Japanese troops were wiped out in
China.
The Chinese people, through resistance, depleted Japan's
resources and limited its ability to launch attacks on other
countries, thus playing a role that could not be neglected in the
war, said the Chinese official.
He also lashed out at a handful of people in Japan for their
attempts to shirk the country's responsibility for war under the
pretext of cultural differences.
But the official stressed that the Chinese government will stick
to its long-term policy of maintaining friendly ties with the
Japanese people, saying it will be conducive to the development of
both countries.
Chinese Ambassador to Israel Chen Yonglong hailed the friendship
forged during the hard years of war between the Chinese and Jewish
peoples.
While the "civilized world" in the West closed the door, China
provided shelter for up to 20,000 Jewish people being persecuted by
fascists, the ambassador said. He hoped that the Sino-Israeli
friendship will be passed on from generation to generation.
At the seminar, some of the Israeli participants recalled their
years in Shanghai, one of the Chinese cities to host Jewish
refugees at the time. They said they feel thankful to the Chinese
people whenever they think of their fellowmen taken to the Nazi
concentration camps in Europe during the war.
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(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2005)