China Military Strongly Frustrated at Japan Defense Report

Beijing, July 12 (Jiji Press)--China's military is "strongly discontented with and firmly opposed to" a Japanese defense white paper that criticized Chinese government ships' repeated intrusions into Japanese waters around the Senkaku islands, a Ministry of National Defense spokesman has said. "The new edition of Japan's defense white paper deliberately ignores facts and plays up 'China's military threat,'" Geng Yansheng said in a statement released on Thursday night. The Japanese report, released Tuesday, "made groundless accusations against China's legitimate conduct for safeguarding national sovereignty, and attempted to sow dissensions between China and its neighboring countries," he said. Geng also said his ministry has lodged a protest to Japan. While Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying criticized the Japanese report at her regular press conference Tuesday, Geng's statement took a harsher note, an indication that the Chinese military is increasingly frustrated at Japan's stance over the group of East China Sea islands. The Japanese-administered islands have been claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu. In the white paper, the Japanese government said that Chinese ships' repeated intrusions into Japanese waters around the islands are "extremely regrettable." In the statement, Geng also said Japan's nationalization of some of the islands in September last year was "a grave violation" of China's territorial sovereignty and caused tensions in bilateral relations. Japan falsely accuses China for destroying bilateral relations, Geng said, adding Japanese officials' remarks on the island issue "will mislead international opinions and create tensions in the region." Geng also criticized Japanese leaders for sometimes making "irresponsible remarks" over the country's wartime history, warning that such moves will arouse strong concerns and high alert among its Asian neighbors and the international community. "We urge the Japanese side to reflect on its aggressive history, choose the path of peaceful development and win the trust of its Asian neighbors by concrete actions," Geng said. END