China hopes Hiroshima invite shows JP won't pursue militarism

Beijing hopes that Japan's invitation to US President Barack Obama to visit Hiroshima demonstrates "it will never walk on the road of militarism again”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said on Thursday.

Hong made the remarks while commenting on Obama's upcoming visit to Japan during a regular press briefing.

"An important lesson WWII left us is to avoid the tragedy of war being repeated again as well as to safeguard the international order after the war," Hong said.

"I hope that Japan inviting another country's leader to Hiroshima, a city that was attacked by an atomic bomb, also demonstrates that it will never walk on the road of militarism again, which brought tremendous disaster to a number of Asian countries as well as the Japanese people."

According to the White House, Obama will visit Asia from May 21-28. The trip will include his first visit to Vietnam and a G7 summit in Japan.

Responding to a question that Obama's visit to Vietnam will probably involve US weapons sales to the country, Hong said, "we hope that the cooperation of relevant countries will help to maintain peace and stability in the region, and play a constructive role in this area’’.