US urges Japan, China to 'move on'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-08 14:46

The United States, anxious to snuff out a new flash point in East Asia, told Japan and China to "move on" in their spat over historical wrongs, arguing that their continuing squabble could damage regional trade and security interests.

The warning came amid indications that six-party talks focusing on North Korea's nuclear program could soon resume after a one-year hiatus. China and Japan are key participants in these negotiations, along with the United States, Russia and the two Koreas.

"I don't mean to make light of any of the historical issues here, but they do need to address them and they do need to move on," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He said unresolved tensions between China and Japan, exacerbated by diverging historical perspectives and differing military and economic priorities, "disrupt a relationship of great importance" to the region.

"Healthy China-Japan relations are essential to stability and prosperity in East Asia," the assistant secretary of state pointed out.

Ties between the two nations began their downward slide in April, when the Japanese government approved a new history textbook that many Chinese believe glosses over atrocities committed by Japan during World War II, including experiments with weapons of mass destruction, forced prostitution and use of slave labor.

The move sparked violent anti-Japanese protests in Chinese cities, during which demonstrators attacked Japanese diplomatic missions with paint and rocks.

The street protests, however, were followed by diplomatic action.

Late last month, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi cancelled a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi during her visit to Tokyo to protest his continued pilgrimages to the Yasukuni shrine.

Koizumi has visited the shrine that honors millions of Japanese war dead along with 14 convicted war criminals each year since he took office in 2001 and has indicated he will go again this year.

In addition, China last week publicly voiced its opposition to plans to allow a group of four countries that included Japan to become permanent veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council.