SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2004
Japan demands Chinese apology
AFP
TOKYO: Japan summoned a top Chinese diplomat Friday to demand an apology for the intrusion into its waters of a nuclear submarine, which set off a two-day chase at sea amid mounting tension between the Asian powers.
Japan, which had initially been careful not to blame its giant neighbor for Wednesday's two-hour territorial violation near disputed gas fields, said it determined the submarine belonged to the Chinese navy.
"We made a strong protest and demanded an apology," Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said after meeting Chinese embassy number two Cheng Yonghua, who was summoned because the ambassador was out of Tokyo.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called the intrusion "extremely regrettable" and said he was awaiting Beijing's response, but argued that the incident should not sour ties further.
"Since Sino-Japan relations are important, we both have to make efforts to prevent a problem like this from creating negative impact," Koizumi told reporters.
Cheng said he would report to Beijing but Machimura quoted him as adding: "'We are investigating this matter so we cannot accept a protest or make an apology.'"
Disputes have been growing between China and Japan, with a leaked report by Japanese defense planners this week charting three scenarios for a Chinese attack all involving the southern region near where the submarine intruded. The two countries, which both rely heavily on energy imports to feed their massive economies, held fruitless talks last month in Beijing about how to demarcate the gas fields.
A 1999 Japanese survey estimated the fields to have 200 billion cubic meters (seven trillion cubic feet) of reserves. Japan's football team was loudly jeered and booed by Chinese crowds as it won the Asian Cup this summer in China.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the Japanese government spokesman, said Japan did not want to cause more confrontation with China.
"There is no change in our basic diplomatic policy that is based on peaceful diplomacy and friendship," Hosoda said.
A fact-finding mission from the Japanese parliament called Wednesday for a slash in development aid to China, which has so far totalled nearly 32 billion dollars, citing China's growing economy and hostility toward Japan.
Asked whether the submarine incident would lead Japan to pull the plug on aid, Hosoda said: "It's too early to judge that."
China feels deep resentment over Japan's brutal occupation of the country from 1931 to 1945. The feeling has been regularly reinforced by Koizumi's visits to a Tokyo shrine that honors Japanese war dead including convicted war criminals.
The visits to the Yasukuni shrine have made Koizumi persona non grata in Beijing, which has yet to confirm whether Chinese President Hu Jintao will meet him when they both attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile later this month.
If Hu and Koizumi do meet in Santiago, it would be "natural" that they discuss the submarine intrusion, Machimura said.
The submarine entered Japanese waters about 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Okinawa, a southern island which hosts about 65 percent of the more than 40,000 US forces in Japan. Japan sent two destroyers after the submarine along with a surveillance plane, which had been tracking the vessel by dropping wireless microphone buoys.
"As the submarine navigated north by northwest, we determined it belonged to China as the country possesses nuclear-powered submarines in the area and has thorough knowledge of geographical features of the ocean area," said Japan's military chief, Defense Agency Director-General Yoshinori Ono. There was no immediate reaction out of Beijing. Japan's former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who frequently visits China, met Thursday with senior Chinese officials and told them the submarine incident was "regrettable", without assigning blame.
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