Ambrosio Spinola
12-05-2005, 09:20 AM
Now here we have a nation that wont take shit form anyone. Might someone in the west learn from this.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-05T052430Z_01_WRI519089_RTRUKOC_0_UK-JAPAN-CHINA.xml&archived=False
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi criticised China on Monday for postponing an annual summit of Japan, China and South Korea, saying Beijing cannot use his visits to a war shrine as a diplomatic card.
Ties with China and South Korea have been chilled by Koizumi's annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which they regard as a symbol of past Japanese militarism.
Koizumi, who says he makes the visits to pray for peace and honour the war dead, last went in October, triggering protests from the two Asian neighbours.
"Yasukuni isn't something that can be used as a diplomatic card. Even if China and South Korea try to use it as a diplomatic card, that won't work," Koizumi told reporters.
Koizumi defended his visits to Yasukuni, which honours war criminals along with Japan's 2.5 million war dead.
"Those who criticise it are wrong," he said.
China said on Sunday that the annual summit with Japan and South Korea due in mid-December had been postponed. The decision comes at a time when Japan's neighbours continue to question its remorse for past aggression.
China's Foreign Ministry said the summit, to have taken place on the sidelines of a regional conference in Malaysia, has been postponed to an appropriate time due to the "current atmosphere and conditions".
The three-way summit has been held every year since 1999.
"I wouldn't mind holding it at any time. But if they want to postpone it, that's fine," Koizumi said.
Even though his shrine visits have frayed relations with China and South Korea, the diplomatic chill in Asia has done Koizumi little harm at home, and may even be winning him some points with the Japanese public.
Analysts have said his rejection of demands by Beijing and Seoul to stop visiting Yasukuni strikes a chord with the many Japanese who resent China's economic rise and are suspicious of its military buildup.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-05T052430Z_01_WRI519089_RTRUKOC_0_UK-JAPAN-CHINA.xml&archived=False
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi criticised China on Monday for postponing an annual summit of Japan, China and South Korea, saying Beijing cannot use his visits to a war shrine as a diplomatic card.
Ties with China and South Korea have been chilled by Koizumi's annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which they regard as a symbol of past Japanese militarism.
Koizumi, who says he makes the visits to pray for peace and honour the war dead, last went in October, triggering protests from the two Asian neighbours.
"Yasukuni isn't something that can be used as a diplomatic card. Even if China and South Korea try to use it as a diplomatic card, that won't work," Koizumi told reporters.
Koizumi defended his visits to Yasukuni, which honours war criminals along with Japan's 2.5 million war dead.
"Those who criticise it are wrong," he said.
China said on Sunday that the annual summit with Japan and South Korea due in mid-December had been postponed. The decision comes at a time when Japan's neighbours continue to question its remorse for past aggression.
China's Foreign Ministry said the summit, to have taken place on the sidelines of a regional conference in Malaysia, has been postponed to an appropriate time due to the "current atmosphere and conditions".
The three-way summit has been held every year since 1999.
"I wouldn't mind holding it at any time. But if they want to postpone it, that's fine," Koizumi said.
Even though his shrine visits have frayed relations with China and South Korea, the diplomatic chill in Asia has done Koizumi little harm at home, and may even be winning him some points with the Japanese public.
Analysts have said his rejection of demands by Beijing and Seoul to stop visiting Yasukuni strikes a chord with the many Japanese who resent China's economic rise and are suspicious of its military buildup.