FM: Japan military 'gossiping' hides issue By Cao Desheng (China Daily) Updated: 2005-12-09 06:05
Japan should explain its own military tendencies to the world before
gossiping about other nations' national defence expenditure, a Foreign Ministry
spokesman said yesterday.
Foreign Ministry
Spokesman Qin Gang answers a question at the ministry's routine press
briefing in Beijing December 8, 2005.
[fmprc.gov.cn] | Referring to Japanese Foreign
Minister Taro Aso's remarks about China's military budget, Foreign Ministry
spokesman Qin Gang said it was Japan's recent moves that should cause serious
concern among the international community.
Aso said in a speech in Tokyo on Wednesday that China needs to embrace
political transparency and be more open about its military budget to ensure its
rising economic and diplomatic power is not seen as a threat in Asia.
"China has repeated that its military budget is open and transparent," Qin
said. "A white paper on national defence published last December clearly mapped
out the military expenditure last year."
He added China adopts a defensive national defence policy. "I feel Japan
should interpret its military tendencies to the world."
Japan's Liberal Democratic Party has been pushing for the post-World War II
pacifist constitution reform to begin by calling government troops the Japanese
Military instead of the Self Defence Force.
The constitution drafted by US occupation forces and unchanged since 1947
bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits
maintaining armed forces for warfare.
Meantime, Japanese troops have taken an increasingly high-profile role in
recent years, prompting some critics to accuse Tokyo of moving away from its
post-war pacifism.
Earlier in 2001, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pushed through
special legislation to let the navy provide logistical support to forces in
Afghanistan for the US "war on terror."
Analysts say such efforts are chipping away at the pacifist society Japan has
built since World War II.
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