Japan premier's invitation follows easing of 'political obstacle'

Oct 4, 2006, 14:47 GMT

Beijing - China invited new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to visit after the two sides agreed to overcome a 'political obstacle,' the foreign ministry said on Wednesday, in apparent reference to his predecessor's visits to a controversial war shrine.

'China and Japan reached a consensus on overcoming the political obstacle to the bilateral relationship and promoting the sound development of bilateral friendly and cooperative relationship,' foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement.

'Accordingly, at the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will pay an official visit to China from October 8 to 9,' Liu said.

Bilateral ties were 'soured by former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's war dead, including 14 class-A war criminals in World War II, are honoured', the official Xinhua news agency said in its report of the invitation to Abe.

The leaders of the two countries have not met since Koizumi's visit to the shrine in 2001.

'Chinese President Hu Jintao said last March in a meeting with the heads of seven Japan-China friendship organizations that the difficult situation in China-Japan relationship was not caused by the Chinese side or the Japanese people,' the agency said.

'The sticking point is that the major obstacle in the China-Japan relationship was the [former] Japanese leader's insistence on visiting the shrine,' it quoted Hu as saying.

China summoned the Japanese ambassador to lodge a formal protest against Koizumi's last visit to the shrine on August 15, and the government allowed a small demonstration outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing.

Abe has previously visited the shrine and China would ideally like him to give a public commitment not to do so as prime minister.

'He has so far remained ambiguous about whether or not he would visit the war shrine in the capacity of prime minister,' Feng Zhaokui, a Japan specialist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in recent commentary on Abe in the official China Daily newspaper.

'But he cannot remain evasive forever, now that he is prime minister,' Feng said. 'He must show where he stands definitely and unambiguously.'

'Abe's position on this matter will be a touchstone to test his sincerity in bettering ties with China and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).'

Abe is also scheduled to travel to Seoul on Monday to meet his South Korean counterpart, Roh Moo Hyun.