China strongly condemns the remarks made by a senior Japanese official denying the existence of "comfort women," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said on Monday.    

Japanese Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Nariaki Nakayama said at a meeting in Shizuoka Saturday that the term "comfort women" did not exist, so it was good that the "incorrect" description was removed from school textbooks.

Liu said it is known to all that the "comfort women" system was a serious crime committed by the Japanese militarists during World War II, and the overt denial of this ugly piece of history by a Japanese cabinet member in charge of education seriously hurts the feelings of victims and their countrymen.

The term "comfort women" was used to describe women who had been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during its war of aggression against its Asian neighbors before and during World War II.

Nakayama's remarks have been strongly criticized and protested against by South Korea, China and other Asian countries from which countless women were forced to serve as sex slaves to Japanese soldiers.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2005)