China, SK slam Japan over territory claims
Print Edition
CHINA and South Korea yesterday lashed out at Japan’s foreign relations report and condemned its new textbooks that say islands at the center of territorial disputes belong to Tokyo.
An angry South Korea summoned Japan’s ambassador to protest, while China warned that Japan was turning a blind eye to basic facts and making ungrounded accusations against China.
The Japanese school textbooks describe the Dokdo islands as Japan’s “sovereign territory” and say South Korean “occupation is unlawful.”
They also say China’s claims to the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea are “unfounded.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China is highly concerned about the Japanese Foreign Ministry policy paper, which also claimed the islands as Japan’s and said China was trying to “change the status quo with force.”
“It neglects the facts, wantonly blackens China’s name and unreasonably criticizes China,” Hong said.
“Japan can never change the fact that the Diaoyu Islands belong to China and will not shake China’s firm determination to safeguard national territorial sovereignty,” Hong said.
South Korean First Vice Minister Cho Tae-yong called in Japan’s ambassador to Seoul to protest yesterday and the foreign ministry warned of worsening relations.
“If Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who declared just three weeks ago he stands by the ‘Kono Statement’ now tries to conduct education for elementary school children that distorts and hides its history of colonial invasion, he is not only breaking his own promise but also committing the mistake of isolating its next generation from international society,” the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.
The statement refers to an apology made by former cabinet secretary Yohei Kono in 1993 which recognized the Japanese government’s involvement in forcing women to work in military brothels during the war.
China and Korea suffered under brutal Japanese rule, with parts of China occupied in the 1930s and Korea colonized from 1910 to 1945.
Hong said Japan must “teach its next generation in the textbooks that the Diaoyu Islands are China’s, and that Japan has illegally snatched them away.”
“Peace and development is the trend of the times,” Hong said. “What Japan has done is make excuses to serve its diplomatic purposes of arms expansion ... This is a deliberate act to stir up tensions.”
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