China is accusing Japan of glorifying aggression after the Japanese foreign minister said that Tokyo's 50-year colonial rule over Taiwan was responsible for the country's high education standards.
Beijing's angry reaction comes at a time when relations are already strained amid disputes over Japan's wartime history, contested oil resources and Tokyo's campaign for a UN Security Council seat.
"We are shocked by and express our strong indignation over the Japanese foreign minister's remark of overtly glorifying invasion history," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan (
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso reportedly said in a speech in Japan on Saturday that Taiwan has a high educational level thanks to Japanese improvements in literacy and education standards during the 1895-1945 colonial era.
Many Chinese believe Japan has failed to atone fully for its colonial-era aggression against its Asian neighbors and react angrily to any comments that appear to minimize their suffering.
In a separate commentary, Xinhua complained yesterday that Aso called Taiwan a country.
Xinhua said calling Taiwan a country "undermined the political foundation of the Sino-Japanese relationship."
Beijing criticized Tokyo last year after Japan and the US issued a joint statement saying they favored a peaceful settlement to the dispute over Taiwan's status.
Japan has official relations only with Beijing but has extensive informal ties with Taiwan, a major trading partner.
Kong complained that Aso's remarks "distorted history" and hurt Chinese feelings.
Japanese rule "made Taiwan people suffer enslavement and brought grave disaster to the Chinese nation. It is a fact that everyone in the world knows," Xinhua quoted Kong as saying. "The half-a-century colonization of the island was an evil aspect of the Japanese militaristic invasion against China."
Violent protests erupted in Beijing and other Chinese cities last year over Tokyo's Security Council bid and complaints that new Japanese schoolbooks minimize wartime abuses.
Protesters broke windows at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing and at Japanese-owned businesses.
"Some Japanese politicians stick to their wrong view of history and try to justify their country's past military misdeeds," Xinhua said. "Those Japanese politicians should stop their fallacies, give up their wrong views, and return to the right track of mending fences."
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