Japan dispute may hurt Sino-Japanese trade
(bloomberg.com)
Updated: 2005-10-20 19:53

China's dispute with Japan over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to a shrine that honors war criminals may damage economic and trade relations between the two nations, a government spokesman said.

``It is not realistic to expect a long-term close and good economic relationship if the abnormal political relationship continues,'' Zheng Jingping, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, said at a press conference in Beijing today.

Koizumi's fifth visit to the Yasukuni shrine since taking office in April 2001 prompted South Korea and China to cancel some official contacts with Japan, including a scheduled visit by Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura to discuss disputed gas fields in the South China Sea.

Japan accounts for about 10 percent of foreign direct investment in China and as much as 15 percent of China's foreign trade, Zheng said.

``It's a duty of the politicians to take a strategic point of view to create a friendly environment to support trade and economic development,'' he said. ``Anyone not courageous enough to admit their own mistakes cannot be accepted.''