Murayama pledges peace with China

Murayama pledges peace with China

BEIJING (Reuter): Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama marked the first day of a visit to China yesterday by touring the site of a 1937 clash that triggered all-out war. He called the 50th anniversary of the war's end a new starting point in ties.

However, Murayama stopped short of apologizing for Japan's bloody invasion of China in the 1930s and the 1940s war and his talks with Chinese Premier Li Peng revealed disagreements over nuclear weapons testing, Taiwan and economic ties.

Murayama, 71, became the first Japanese prime minister to visit the Marco Polo Bridge on the outskirts of Beijing where Japan used an exchange of fire with Chinese troops in July, 1937, as a pretext to launch a full invasion of China.

"On the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, I have been able to visit a site representative of the grave damage inflicted upon the Chinese people," Murayama said.

"Thinking of the past history, I renew my commitment to future peace," he said at a war museum near the bridge.

Japan was ready to treat the 50th anniversary as a new starting point, Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

Murayama arrived in Beijing late on Tuesday for a five-day official visit.

In talks with Li and Communist Party chief and state President Jiang Zemin, Murayama stressed that Japan wanted to learn from its past mistakes to build peaceful ties with China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Chen Jian praised Murayama's visit to the war museum as of positive significance because he showed a "sensible attitude to history".

Li reminded Murayama that there were different voices in Japan on how to view its aggressive history, Chen said.

"This shows there are still militarist forces in Japan, so efforts should be made to stop this tendency so the historical tragedy will not happen again," he quoted Li as saying.

Murayama made no explicit apology for the war because at home his fragile coalition government remains bitterly divided over the issue.

In his meeting with Li, Murayama asked China to halt nuclear testing in line with the other declared nuclear powers, the United States, Russia, Britain and France.

Li declined to reply, said a Murayama aide who briefed reporters.

However, Li said China was moving to approve the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty, which expires this year, the aide said. The United Nations is currently debating renewal of the treaty.