Japan's foreign minister Taro Aso called China a military threat
Sunday, while a top government spokesman rebuffed conciliatory
gestures by Beijing over a controversial war shrine.
Aso, who has angered China in recent months with a series of
critical comments, questioned China's military spending increases
and said it lacked of transparency.
"It's not clear what China is using the money for. This creates
a sense of threat for surrounding countries," Aso said on a Fuji
television talk show.
Chinese officials have insisted that their country is open about
spending and has increased military exchanges with other
countries.
President Hu Jintao of China made a conciliatory gesture last
week by offering to hold a summit meeting with Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi if he ended his visits to the Yasukuni shrine,
which honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war
criminals.
Beijing has refused top-level talks since Koizumi last visited
the shrine in October 2005, calling his actions offensive for
Chinese victims of Japan's aggression before and during World War
II.
Japanese leader's shrine visit has hurt the feelings of Chinese
people and damaged the political foundation of Sino-Japanese
relations, said President Hu when meeting several visiting Japanese
organizations.
But the chief Japanese cabinet spokesman, Shinzo Abe, a
front-runner to succeed Koizumi when his term runs out in
September, rejected that offer Sunday on the Fuji TV talk show.
"It is wrong for China to refuse talks just over one problem,"
he said.
(China Daily April 3, 2006)
