|
Download Beijing has declared Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "not welcome" by the Chinese people and said Chinese leaders won't meet him. It is China's toughest stance since tensions flared last year between the Asian powerhouses over China's Diaoyu Islands. Analysts said Abe must apologize for his visit to a shrine honoring war criminals and promise not to visit it again if he really wants to mend ties with neighbors. "It is Abe who has shut the door on talks with Chinese leaders," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a daily news briefing on Monday, referring to Abe's Dec 26 visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 Class-A World War II criminals. "Since assuming office, Abe has miscalculated China-Japan ties and made one mistake after another," Qin said, calling the war criminals fascists and Nazis of Asia. During his visit to the shrine, the first by a sitting Japanese prime minister since 2006, Abe said that relations with China and South Korea were important and he hoped "for an opportunity to explain to China and South Korea that strengthening ties would be in the national interest". Liu Jiangyong, an expert on Japanese studies at Tsinghua University, said, "As the international community has questioned Abe's visit, an apology or a promise of no more visits will be more sincere than his offer of an explanation." Abe's call for a chance to explain the matter is an attempt to put the ball back into the court of China and South Korea, he said. | 
