China has scotched any meeting between Chinese and Japanese officials at an enlarged meeting of Southeast Asian nations this month, saying it was "impossible" given chilled political relations.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry official said in Beijing yesterday that a bilateral meeting would be impossible during the summit meetings in Kuala Lumpur because of strained relations between the two Asian neighbors.
Cui Tiankai, director of the ministry's Asian Department, said bilateral relations are in difficulties because Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stubbornly persists in making pilgrimages to the Yasukuni Shrine. The shrine honors convicted class-A World War II criminals along with ordinary soldiers who died in WWII.
Koizumi visited the shrine in October, the fifth time since he took office in April 2001, angering China, South Korea and other victims of Japanese aggression.
The shrine visit "has severely damaged the feelings of the Chinese and other Asian peoples," Cui told a news briefing on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's upcoming visit to Malaysia to attend the ninth summit between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including Japan and South Korea.
"The Japanese side wishes everything proceeds normally as if nothing has happened. That is impossible," said Cui.
(Xinhua)