An outraged Japan said yesterday that China needed to learn better manners after it stood up Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, as relations between the Asian powers worsened over memories of World War II.
Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi (
"They suddenly canceled the schedule but gave no word of apology. It is understandable if they have urgent matters but they should know society just does not function without saying `I'm sorry,'" Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference.
Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Taro Aso warned that Wu had caused anti-Chinese sentiment among Japanese people to rise.
"Their manner is totally out of common [diplomatic] practices. It has greatly contributed to fanning anti-Chinese feelings," Aso said.
Education Minister Nariaki Nakayama also joined the Japanese government's unusually strongly worded criticism of its neighbor.
"I thought China was a country that values manners. I am very sorry to think that they must have forgotten such things," Nakayama said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government said it was upset over remarks Japanese leaders made during Wu's eight-day trip about visits to the Yakusuni Shrine.
"We are very dissatisfied that Japanese leaders have made repeated remarks that are negative for the development of better relations during Madame Wu's visit to Japan, which have deprived such meetings of necessary conditions and atmosphere," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan (
Koizumi, who has visited the shrine four times since 2001, refused last week to vow not to visit there again this year, repeating his statement that he would decide "appropriately" when to pay homage to Japan's war dead.
"I don't understand why Yasukuni visits are linked to militarism," Koizumi told a parliamentary committee.
"China says [that Japan] should show through its actions that it is reflecting on the war, but in the 60 years since the war Japan has shown it has reflected on the war by ... staying true to its word never to wage war," he added.
China, in comparison, has fought a number of conflicts since 1945, including border wars with India, Vietnam and Russia, as well as fighting alongside the North Koreans during the Korean War.
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
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FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
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