C.bank head to cancel Tokyo trip over Koizumi's shrine visits (AP) Updated: 2005-12-30 18:18
The governor of China's central bank is expected to cancel a trip to Tokyo
scheduled for next month because of China's anger over Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's repeated visits to a controversial war shrine, a newspaper said
Friday.
Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, is scheduled to
participate in a one-day economic symposium along with central bank chiefs and
other financial officials from around the region on January 25, the Mainichi
newspaper reported.
But Zhou is intending to call off his planned visit due to the worsening
relations between Japan and China arising from Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni
Shrine, the Mainichi said citing international financial sources it did not
identify.
Beijing has long objected to the prime minister's visits to the shrine, which
honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals who
ordered Tokyo's brutal invasion of other Asian countries in the early 1900s.
Koizumi has visited the shrine five times since taking
office in 2001, most recently on October 17.
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