China Wants War Shrine Resolution

Resolving the dispute over a controversial Tokyo war shrine is "the urgent" issue facing Japan and China, China's top envoy to Tokyo said Thursday, urging the Japanese government to call off visits by the country's prime minister.

"We need to resolve the situation as quickly as possible," Chinese Ambassador Wang Yi said at a news conference in Tokyo. "This is not a situation we can simply avoid."

Wang called on the Japanese government to issue a statement saying that the country's leaders would refrain from public visits to Yasukuni Shrine. China and South Korea say the visits glorify Japan's militaristic past.

Despite growing trade between the economic powerhouses, diplomatic relations between China and Japan have sunk to their lowest in decades amid a series of territorial disputes and disagreements over interpretations of wartime history.

Relations plunged again last month, when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni for the fifth time since taking office in 2001, prompting protests from China and South Korea and complicating diplomatic relations.

Wang said the visit was like "pouring salt in the wounds" of the Chinese people.

After Koizumi paid respects, he and other Japanese ministers were snubbed for meetings with Chinese officials during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Busan, South Korea.

At the conference, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing compared Koizumi's visit to worshipping Hitler.

Also hobbling relations is a dispute over undersea gas deposits, ownership of islets in the East China Sea and Japan's adoption of textbooks that critics say whitewash World War II atrocities.

These grievances all helped trigger anti-Japanese riots in China earlier this year, but Wang put most of the blame on the Yasukuni visits.

"The biggest factor that is influencing their feelings toward Japan is the historical problems, most specifically the Yasukuni issue," Wang said of the demonstrators. "The dissatisfaction of the Chinese people built up over time."

Japan's 2.5 million war dead are worshipped as deities at Yasukuni, including convicted war criminals executed by the Allies after World War II such as wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Koizumi has defended his visits as private affairs and says he prays at the shrine for peace.

"If a common Japanese person visits the Yasukuni Shrine, we will not challenge that, but we firmly oppose visits to the shrine by Japanese leaders," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao at a press briefing in Beijing.

China surpassed the United States last year to become Japan's largest trade partner, underscoring the importance of smooth relations between Asia's two biggest economies.

But Japan has its own concerns about China, including Beijing's burgeoning defense budget, which has made double-digit increases in recent years amid China's rapid economic growth.

Wang said China poses no military threat to its neighbors and that its primary focus is on economic development.

Despite the military spending increases, China's defense budget accounts for an even smaller percentage of overall government spending compared with 20 years ago, he said.