Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday, "Japan's newly approved middle school history textbooks try to exculpate Japan's militarism and severely hurt the feeling of its victims. The textbook issue is not Japan's internal affairs."  

He said the textbooks compiled by right-wing groups obscure Japan's militarism, justify and glorify Japan's militarist past and beautify its invasions.

"It is defiant of human justice and conscientiousness, and causes severe harm to people from Asian countries including China," Qin told yesterday's regular press conference.

The textbook issue affects the relations between Japan and its neighboring countries. It will be vehemently condemned by people from all Asian countries that were victimized by Japan, including the Chinese.

"We seriously urge the Japanese government to honestly honor its commitment of expressing remorse for its militaristic history, and take effective measures to eliminate the odious impact of the issue, so as to win trust from Asian people," Qin said.

The Japanese government announced Tuesday that all the eight textbooks submitted for approval were qualified, yet among them were those compiled by right-wing groups that deny or beautify Japanese aggression during World War II.

"The textbook issue largely determines whether Japan can appropriately treat its militaristic history of aggression and instill in its young citizens a right perception of that history," Qin said.

Because Japan continuously harms China's interests and hurts Chinese feelings on these issues, Chinese people are strongly dissatisfied with Japan. "We hope Japan can seriously treat the Chinese people's concern and properly settle the history issues that relate to the Chinese people's feelings," he said.

As for some Chinese people who expressed their strong dissatisfaction in different forms over Japan's wrong stance on history issues, the spokesman said, "We hope they can take rational ways to express their feelings."

Qin also urged Japan to be prudent on the East China Sea issue.

He noted that China and Japan have not reached any agreement on boundary demarcations in the East China Sea or on exploration and exploitation of oil and gas resources there. He called for Japan to pay due attention to the fact, and not to take any action to complicate the situation.    

Qin said China always holds that the issue be addressed through dialogue and friendly consultation.

"In a show of sincerity, China has proposed shelving the dispute and joint development of resources in the region, which is the only correct approach that conforms to the common interests of the two sides," Qin said.

He said that Japan should not try to impose its own proposition on China, and urged the Japanese government to act prudently and prevent worsening of the situation by taking any unilateral action.

Turning to the renminbi issue, Qin delivered a sharp rebuke to the US Senate's threat to impose economic sanctions if Beijing fails to change its current currency policy.

He said the latest analysis by the International Monetary Fund showed that China's currency does not appear undervalued.

"When determining whether the currency is or is not undervalued you do not only take into consideration bilateral trade but multilateral trade as well," he said.

"China has trade surpluses with the United States yet the country is experiencing a big trade deficit with many of its Asian trading partners," he said, adding that the United States should adjust its economic imbalance by looking at its own reasons.

China saw faster import increases last year while trade was basically balanced and tremendous reform work was done to improve the renminbi exchange rate mechanism.

He said China is willing to settle any trade disputes with the United States through equal negotiations so as to push forward the healthy and stable development of the bilateral trade.

In another development, Qin said that China will gradually make donations in cash to the World Food Program (WFP) based on its capability.

"China is still a developing country. We are not rich. We still have 29 million people living in poverty," he said.

However, Qin said since there are still 850 million people in the world who are threatened with starvation, China is ready to make donations to the WFP based on its capability.

"China is ready to join hands with the WFP to make contributions to reducing world poverty," he said.

The food aid organization of the United Nations became operational in 1963. It provides relief assistance to victims of natural and man-made disasters, and supplies food aid to people in developing countries with the aim of stimulating self-reliant communities.

WFP started to offer free food aid to China since 1979. The organization's Executive Director James T. Morris said in December last year when visiting China that China has made great achievements in securing its food supply and the WFP planned to stop free food aid to China by the end of 2005.

Turning to the United Nations, Qin said China supports reforms of the UN Security Council, but said priority should be given to increasing representation of developing countries.

Qin said the reform of the UN is of great importance and should help build solidarity among member countries.

He said the consensus-seeking process should be characterized by wide and patient discussions by every country.

He said such discussions are the foundation of the UN and should be a priority when dealing with important issues.

He said to force the development of immature proposals would hurt the solidarity and authority of the UN Security Council.

Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Wang Guangya said on Wednesday China supports reforms of the Security Council, but "is not in favor of setting an artificial time limit for the Security Council reform and still less of forcing through any immature proposals lacking consensus in the form of a vote."

Turning to Iraq, Qin said China is glad to note the recent progress achieved in the war-worn country's transitional process in politics.

Iraq's Transitional National Assembly elected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani Wednesday as the new president for the transitional period. Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite who was finance minister in the outgoing government, and Sunni leader Ghazi Yawar, a former president, were appointed as the first and second vice presidents.

The forming of the three-member presidential council finally put an end to the long haggling between the winning Shiite and Kurd blocs and lawmaker said a new government will be established next week.

Qin said China is willing to further promote friendly cooperation with the Iraqi transitional government and will continue to support the reconstruction of Iraq.

Moving on to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Qin vowed that China would continue to make efforts to restore six-party talks as soon as possible, calling for the concerned parties to show flexibility, sincerity and good will.

Qin said that China had a long and deep exchange of views with Kang Sok-ju, the first vice minister of foreign affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, during his visit to China this week, in order to promote peace and dialogue and push forward the involved parties to take substantial measures to reopen the talks.

Qin stressed that China's position on a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula remains unchanged and that China will continue to make efforts to promote dialogue and consultation to safeguard peace and stability on the peninsula.

With regard to the ongoing China visit by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez, Qin said it will further promote friendly cooperation between the two countries.

Uribe arrived in Beijing Wednesday morning, starting his four-day state visit to China as the guest of President Hu Jintao. This is his first visit to China after assuming presidency in 2002.

China and Colombia enjoy sound cooperative relations, said the spokesman. He said long-term cooperation between the two countries will be enhanced by Uribe's China tour.

President Hu held talks with Uribe Wednesday afternoon. Qin said the two leaders agreed to expand exchanges and cooperation and try to forge new Sino-Colombian ties in the new century.

China and Colombia established diplomatic ties in 1980. "The two countries have enjoyed smooth development of bilateral ties in the past 25 years, with friendly cooperation growing steadily in various fields and sound cooperation maintained in international affairs," Qin said.

"Both governments attach importance to developing bilateral ties," he said.

With concerted efforts, he said, Sino-Colombian relations will be promoted continuously.

Turning to Sino-Indian relations, Qin said China is willing to expand trade and economic cooperation with India, including the establishment of a free trade area between the two countries.

He said the two countries' economies are mutually complementary and China hopes to broaden the trade and economic cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefits.

Qin announced Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo will pay a state visit to China from April 14 to 17 at the invitation of President Hu.

Also according to the spokesman, Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), will attend the annual conference of the Boao Forum of Asia (BFA) on April 22-24 in Boao, a tranquil town on the eastern coast of south China's Hainan Province.

Qin said that at the invitation of the BFA, Jia will address the conference as a keynote speaker, and will also meet related leaders and delegates from other countries attending the conference.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, CRI.com April 8, 2005)