China rejects Japanese demand for apology

BEIJING - China has bluntly told Japan that it has no reason to apologise for weeks of anti-Japanese protests, some violent, in cities across China.

The Chinese are furious at a revised Japanese school textbook they say whitewashes atrocities during Japan's 1931-1945 occupation of China and strongly opposes Japan's bid for a permanent seat alongside China on the UN Security Council.

"The Chinese government has never done anything for which it has to apologise to the Japanese people," Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told his visiting Japanese counterpart, Nobutaka Machimura, at a meeting.

"The main problem now is that the Japanese government has done a series of things that have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people ... especially in its treatment of history."

Machimura flew to China on Sunday to try to heal relations between the two Asian powerhouses which are at their worst in decades. He demanded China deal with the protests swiftly even as they spread from Shanghai on Saturday to cities across the country on Sunday.

Japan is asking for compensation for attacks on Japanese property in China and an official apology, but Li did not offer either.

Machimura, in his meeting with Li, extended an invitation for Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to visit Japan.

He said Japan and China would in May discuss their dispute over exploration for natural gas in the East China Sea.

China denies tacitly encouraging the anti-Japanese unrest and has pledged to protect Japanese businesses and nationals.

In the third weekend of violent protests, thousands marched on Saturday to Japan's consulate in Shanghai, smashing windows, pelting it with paint bombs and eggs and attacking Japanese restaurants along the way.

China's official Xinhua news agency put the number of protesters in Shanghai at 20,000. Two Japanese were slightly injured in the city, home to thousands of Japanese firms and about 34,000 Japanese expatriates, the Japanese consulate in Shanghai said.

Hong Kong Cable Television said protests were held in about 10 Chinese cities, including southern Dongguan and southwestern Chengdu.

Several thousand people marched in Hong Kong and as many as 2000 people marched through the streets of the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, Kyodo news agency said. Demonstrators hurled bottles and eggs at the Japanese consulate in the city.

Machimura proposed a bilateral meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi later this week when the two are in Indonesia for a multilateral meeting, Takashima said.

Li told him China would consider it.

Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said the violence in China could hurt the Asian giant's global image and economy.

- REUTERS