Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday, "Japan's newly-approved middle school history textbooks try to exculpate Japan's militarism and severely hurts the feeling of its victims. It 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 said.

The textbook issue affects the relations among Japan and its neighboring countries, including China. 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 are qualified, yet among them are those compiled by right-wing groups which 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.

It is because Japan continuously harms China's interests and hurts Chinese feelings on the these issues that Chinese 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 said.

East China Sea issue

The spokesman noted that China and Japan have not reached any agreement onboundary 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.

Qin also 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. 

UN reform

Talking about the United Nation's reform plan, Qin Gang said "forcing immature UN reform proposals" to vote would jeopardize the solidarity of the United Nations and the authority of the UN Security Council.

While expressing China's support to UN reform, Qin said China believes that the priority of the Security Council reforms should be given to increasing the representation of developing countries.

"As the reform is of vital importance, it should be conducted to promote the solidarity among the member states of the United Nations," he said, adding that consensus should be made among the member states through broad and patient discussions.

Qin said seeking consensus through consultation is not only the spirit enshrined in the UN Charter but also the important corner stone for UN's vitality.

"We should especially adhere to this when dealing with key issues," said Qin.

The spokesman said the Chinese government will take a responsible attitude and handle the issue from a perspective of maintaining world peace and promoting common development.

Editor: Olivia