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China slams Japan's military plans
By Willy Wo-Lap Lam, CNN Senior China Analyst
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Beijing has stepped up an attack on Tokyo's "re-militarization" even as Japan's defense chief is visiting the Chinese capital on a fence-mending trip. The Chinese state media have been running numerous articles criticizing alleged efforts by Tokyo to boost its defense forces and to change the country's pacifist constitution. The official People's Daily Web site on Monday carried an article slamming Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's intention to complete the constitutional revision process by 2005. Commentator Sun Jianhe indicated that Koizumi wanted to change Japan's self-defense force into a full-fledged army that could be deployed overseas. "This shows Japan's militaristic ambitions," wrote Sun, adding that Koizumi needed the support of right-wing political forces to win re-election later this year. Diplomatic analysts in Beijing said senior cadres meeting Japan defense chief Shigeru Ishiba on Monday would likely focus on Tokyo's plans to develop a theater missile defense (TMD) mechanism with the U.S. Beijing, fearful that a TMD umbrella may be extended to Taiwan, has claimed that the system would destabilize Asian security. The analysts said given the rise of anti-Japanese sentiments in China the past few months, Ishiba would have a tough time reassuring his hosts of Tokyo's pacifist intentions. Meanwhile, a host of NGOs in China is mobilizing more resources to seek compensation from Tokyo over World War II-vintage bombs and other toxic material left over by the Japanese Army. Sources close to the activist groups said they were organizing Web-based signature campaigns and that a petition bearing more than one million names would be presented to the Japanese Embassy on the 18th. A sensitive date in bilateral relations, the September 18 Incident marked the incursion of Japanese forces into China's northeastern provinces in 1931. Other NGOs have protested the right-wing Japanese Youth League's visit last month to the disputed Diaoyu Island, which is called the Senkakus in Japan. Asian diplomats in Beijing said while in the past the Chinese government had tried to discourage the formation of anti-Japanese NGOs, such organizations had increased dramatically this year.
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