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China regrets

Japan's plan

to cut aid

BEIJING: China expressed "deep regret" on Monday over Japan's plans to restrict grant aid to Beijing after last week's nuclear test, urging Tokyo to reflect on its wartime atrocities rather than criticising others.

"The Japanese government unwarrantedly criticized China's nuclear test and indicated that it would take the step of reducing its governmental grants to China. We would like to express our deep regret about that," said a foreign ministry spokesman.

The Japanese government and people reacted with outrage over Beijing's nuclear test Thursday, with Foreign Minister Yohei Kono telling the Chinese ambassador that Tokyo's grant aid to China would be "restricted" in response.

While saying that China understood "the feelings of Japan as world's only victim country of nuclear weapons," the foreign ministry spokesman said he hoped Japan would "understand the sentiment of the Chinese people especially on the occasion of the 50th anniversary" of the end of World War II.

Japan should make a profound introspection of its historical responsibilities instead of making a fuss over the issue of China's nuclear tests and still less linking nuclear tests with economic issues," he said.

Only in this way could Tokyo "prevent the healthy development of Sino-Japanese relations from being impaired," he said.

Japan is China's largest creditor.-AFP