China calls Japan gas drilling plan 'provocation'

China calls Japan gas drilling plan 'provocation'

Scott Hillis and Linda Sieg, Reuters/Beijing/Tokyo

China called Japan's plan to allow gas exploration in disputed
waters a serious provocation on Thursday, but sought to rein in
anti-Japanese sentiment that sparked violent protests last
weekend.

Japan avoided escalating the war of words, saying dialog was
needed to resolve the feuds. China also called for talks.

Simmering tensions between the two Asian giants over a range
of topics, especially what Beijing sees as Japan's failure to own
up to wartime atrocities, erupted in China at the weekend, with
thousands taking part in protests in cities across the country.

The situation deteriorated on Wednesday after Japan announced
it had started procedures to allocate rights for test-drilling in
a disputed area of the East China Sea.

"This move by Japan is a serious provocation of China's rights
and international norms," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang
said on the ministry's Web site.

"China has already made a protest to Japan and reserves the
right to take further reaction," Qin said, without elaborating.

Later on Thursday, Qin said: "We strongly demand the Japanese
side attach importance to the Chinese side's serious concern. The
consequences hinge on the Japanese side."

He repeated Chinese opposition to Japan becoming a permanent
member of the UN Security Council, saying: "We hope the Japanese
side will fulfil its promise to seriously re-examine its history
of aggression."

China and Japan, respectively the world's second- and third-
biggest oil consumers, are at odds over China's exploration for
natural gas near an area Japan claims as its exclusive economic
zone.

Asked about Qin's remarks, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary
Hiroyuki Hosoda urged dialog.

"As the prime minister said yesterday, it is in the interest
of both Japan and China to make the East China Sea a sea of
cooperation rather than a sea of confrontation," Hosoda, Japan's
top government spokesman, told a news conference.

"We believe that we need to discuss this from a broad
perspective."

The weekend protests, triggered by Japan's approval of new
school history textbooks critics say whitewash its military
aggression and colonization, also took aim at Tokyo's bid for a
permanent Security Council seat.

Since then, the two sides have traded barbs, each pointing the
finger at the other.

But on Thursday, China tried to smooth over the dispute in
talks with senior Japanese and South Korean diplomats in Beijing.

"China is trying to cool down the people and appealed to them
to avoid extreme activities," Xinhua news agency said.

Cui Tiankai, director general of the Chinese Foreign
Ministry's Department of Asian Affairs, told his Japanese and
South Korean counterparts the three countries had a
responsibility to develop "stable and friendly" relations.

"It is the responsibility not only to our own people, but also
to Asia as a whole," Xinhua quoted Cui as saying. In part, that
meant drawing the "right lessons" from the past.

The trilateral meeting "gives us an extra window of
opportunity and widens the possibility for improvement and
recovery" of relations, Cui said.

Chinese activists have called for more protests in Beijing and
Shanghai this coming weekend, but it was unclear whether they
would be allowed to happen.

One of the organizers of china918.net, a Web site promoting
China's version of the history of Japan's wartime aggression,
said it had been ordered to delete online bulletin board messages
calling for people to participate in new protests.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura repeated Tokyo's
demand for an apology and compensation for damage caused during
last weekend's China protests.

"Whatever the reason, destructive actions are not acceptable,"
he told a parliamentary panel. "We cannot accept remarks which
appear to put the blame on Japan."

China, Qin said, opposed excessive actions, but he did not
apologize. The spokesman blamed some Japanese media for
"beautifying (Japan's) history of aggression".

Minister Machimura heads for Beijing on Sunday for talks aimed
at seeking a way out of the impasse that has put Sino-Japanese
ties in the worst state in decades.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may meet Chinese President Hu
Jintao at an Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia next week.

China overtook the United States as Japan's biggest trading
partner in 2004 with about $178 billion in two-way exchanges.
Japanese corporations sank about $9.2 billion into China that
year.

In the energy dispute, Japan considers waters east of the
midway point between its coastline and that of China to be its
exclusive economic zone, but China does not recognize the line.