China says Japan defense paper undermines ties

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has dismissed a Japanese defense
report urging vigilance against its military modernization,
saying the “irresponsible” move would lead to suspicions and
antagonism and undermine bilateral ties.

Japan’s annual defense white paper, released on Tuesday,
said China’s military modernization, including apparent plans
for a deep-water navy, needed to be monitored closely to
determine whether it exceeds requirements for self-defense.

“There is no factual basis and it is extremely
irresponsible of an official Japanese document to publicly play
up the so-called ‘Chinese threat’,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman said in a statement seen on the ministry Web site on
Wednesday.

“This is not conducive to the two countries establishing
mutual trust regarding security and will only mislead the
public, lead to mutual suspicions and antagonism, and undermine
Sino-Japanese relations,” the spokesman said.

“We hope the Japanese side will take the long-term
development of Sino-Japanese ties as a starting point in
consideration and do more that is conducive to improving mutual
trust and friendly feelings instead of the opposite,” he added.

The ministry may have been restrained, but an editorial in
the official China Daily was unceremoniously outspoken.

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has proposed
revising the country’s postwar, pacifist constitution to allow
Japan to possess a military not only to defend itself but to
play a greater role in global security.

“It is not difficult to see the bare fangs and brandished
claws in the proposal,” the editorial said. “The LDP’s proposed
revision of the constitution demonstrates Japan’s new mindset
– encouraging military expansion. This is nerve wracking.”

“MILITARY BULLY”

The editorial accused Japan of portraying itself as “the
only victim of atomic arms,” adding: “The depth of Japan’s
remorse (for World War II atrocities) is in doubt.”

“Without a guilty conscience, Japan is attempting to turn
itself into a regional military bully,” the editorial
concluded.

The Japanese white paper, which appears at a time of
strained Sino-Japanese ties, echoes a Defense Department
report in July that said China’s fast-modernizing military
could pose a long-term threat to the region.

Defense Minister Yoshinori Ohno said, however, that Japan
did not see China as a military threat.

The report also stressed Japan’s concern about China’s
passage in March of an anti-secession law authorizing the use
of “non-peaceful means” to re-unify with Taiwan. Beijing claims
sovereignty over the self-ruled democratic island which split
with the mainland when the Communists won power there in 1949.

The Taiwan issue is one of many sore points in the
Sino-Japanese relationship. Others include Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi’s annual visits to a war shrine in Tokyo and
Chinese accusations that Japan is whitewashing its wartime
past.

The China Daily said that recently uncovered archives had
shed new light on chilling human experiments carried out by
Japan’s notorious Unit 731 in China during World War II.

At a news conference in the northeastern city of Harbin,
Chinese researchers presented Japanese files recording details
of 1,463 people secretly transported to Unit 731.

“This is direct evidence proving Unit 731 conducted
biological experiments on live human beings,” Jin Chengmin, an
expert on Unit 731 at Harbin Academy of Social Sciences, said.

Unit 731 conducted experiments on humans to develop
biological weapons such as bubonic plague, typhoid and cholera.
(Additional reporting by Vivi Lin)