China Sunday refused to offer an apology to Japan even as tens of thousands of Chinese demonstrators hit the streets in fresh anti-Japanese protests across the nation. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing delivered the blunt message to his Japanese counterpart Nobutaka Machimura, who had flown in for what were expected to be difficult talks with ties at their lowest point in decades.
"The Chinese government has never done anything for which it has to apologise to the Japanese people," Li told his Japanese guest.
"The main problem now is the Japanese government has done a series of things that have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, on the Taiwan issue, some international issues including human rights and especially in its treatment of history," Li said.
It was Beijing's first response to demands for an apology for the protests over Tokyo's approval of a nationalist Japanese school textbook which glosses over wartime atrocities and its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Li insisted China handle three consecutive weekends of protests properly and urged Japan to recognise the root of the problem - its wartime past.
"The Chinese government in dealing with any matters (does) so in accordance with the law," Li said. "At the same time, it feels that one should seek truth from facts to become clear on the root of the matter and cannot turn things upside down."
China offered no immediate offer of compensation for Japanese property that had been damaged in three weekends of riots on the mainland, said Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima.
"This kind of situation does not help in any way to improve relations between the two countries," the spokesman said.
However, when Japan suggested a meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi during an upcoming regional meeting in Indonesia, China replied it would consider it, he said.
More than 30,000 protesters thronged the southern boom city of Shenzhen Sunday, hurling water bottles at billboards for Japanese products and burning an image of Koizumi.
"We aren't going to stop these protests," said Stephen Ma, a 25-year-old electronic engineer, explaining calls for a boycott of Japanese goods. "The country is more important than money."
Around 5,000 people held a peaceful protest march in neighbouring Hong Kong, chanting Chinese revolutionary songs and slogans such as: "Japan face up to your crimes."
More than 1,000 protested outside the Japanese consulate in the north-eastern industrial city of Shenyang, where a line of riot police could not prevent stone throwing and other acts of vandalism. Smaller protests were held in the southern cities of Nanning, Zhuhai and Dongguan as well as the central city of Changsha.
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