Top > World > 2006 > February > 2006-02-08

Japanese Official`s Comments Anger China

The People`s Republic of China on Monday strongly condemned Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso`s remarks that the high standard of education in Taiwan is a legacy of imperial Japan`s 50-year colonial rule of the island. A member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Aso is considered one of three leading candidates to succeed Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister this year.

Japan`s occupation of the island from 1895 to the end of World War II in 1945 "made Taiwan`s people suffer enslavement and brought grave disaster to the Chinese nation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said in Beijing. He described Aso`s remarks as "openly glorifying invasion aggression."

Aso has made a number of remarks that have angered Japan`s Asian former colonial neighbors. On January 28, he suggested that Emperor Akihito should visit Tokyo`s Yasukuni Shrine. Japanese PM Koizumi`s annual visits to the shrine, which honors Japan`s military dead, including convicted war criminals from the Second World War, have sharply worsened Sino-Japanese relations.