【2010-10-20】Spokesman: Japan FM's remarks are 'shocking'
[p=30, 2, left]BEIJING - Chinese officials lashed out on Tuesday at Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara for his comments on Beijing's earlier reaction to the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands.[/p][p=30, 2, left]"We feel deeply shocked that a foreign minister of a country could make such remarks," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu in a regular news briefing.[/p][p=30, 2, left]Ma's comments came after Maehara said in parliament on Monday that China's countermeasures in September following Japan's illegal detention of a Chinese trawler captain near the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea were "hysterical".[/p][p=30, 2, left]"To improve and develop China-Japan relations is in the fundamental interest of both countries," Ma added.[/p][p=30, 2, left]"But the seriousness of the remarks made recently by certain officials at the Japanese Foreign Ministry obviously run in the opposite direction," he said.[/p][p=30, 2, left]Beijing and Tokyo are experiencing their bitterest relations in recent years, and diplomats from both sides are working to patch up ties.[/p][p=30, 2, left]To this end, Satsuki Eda, a close aide to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, is currently in China on a four-day trip as president of a youth-exchange delegation.[/p][p=30, 2, left]Eda is also the supreme adviser to the Japanese ruling Democratic Party, and has been elected four times as a legislator.[/p][p=30, 2, left]Ma on Tuesday welcomed Eda and his 1,000-strong youth group, saying China is willing to work together with Japan to continue friendly exchanges between the two peoples - especially among younger people.[/p][p=30, 2, left]They can, he said, "enhance mutual understanding to lay a good social foundation for the healthy development of bilateral ties".[/p][p=30, 2, left]Wang Ping, a researcher on Japan studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said that the Japanese nationalistic sentiments have been agitated by the misleading and irresponsible behavior of the Japanese government.[/p][p=30, 2, left]"By contrast, the Chinese government has remained prudent and called on its people to express their patriotism in a rational way," said Wang.[/p]页:
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