FM maintains firm stance on Japan

Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary session on March 8, 2014, answering questions on China's foreign policy and external relations.[Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

Issues of history and territory are not matters that are open to compromise with Tokyo, China's foreign minister has said.

"This is no room for compromise on the two principle issues of history and territory. If some people in Japan insist on rewriting its history of aggression, I believe the international society and all the peace-loving people around the world will not tolerate it," Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday at a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing two sessions in Beijing.

Tensions between the two nations rose sharply in 2012 due to a territorial dispute over China's Diaoyu Islands. Beijing's relations with Tokyo further deteriorated when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine on Dec 26, the first visit by a sitting Japanese prime minister since 2006.

The shrine honors Japan's war dead in World War II, including 14 Class-A war criminals.

Wang also noted that some people compare the current relations between China and Japan with that of Britain and Germany before World War I.

"I want to stress that 2014 is not 1914 or 1894. It is better to learn from Germany's case after World War II, rather than making use of Germany before World War I."

Japan started the first Sino-Japanese War in 1894, which ended in the defeat of China in 1895.

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