Official lauds KMT role in anti-Japan war
By Sun Shangwu (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-31 05:49

He said that China is celebrating the victory anniversary "with the great spirit of patriotism," instead of viewing the war with "narrow nationalism."

"We are not engaging in anti-Japanese education," said Chen Haosu, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

China's relations with Japan have been strained recently after Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where convicted war criminals are honoured, as well as Tokyo's approval of textbooks that gloss over Japan's war atrocities.

Although Koizumi apologized for its wartime aggression on August 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in 1945, "we think the Japanese Government should translate words into action," said Vice-Foreign Minister Lu Xinhua.