China reiterated Wednesday that it cannot accept the revisions of the controversial Japanese history textbook made by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform.
Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said that China has noticed the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform has revised the textbook, but the revisions are insignificant, avoiding the important matters and dwelling on the trivial ones, and the textbook still contains wrong statements and absurd historical views.
"This is unacceptable to the Chinese side," Zhang said in response to Japan's action of "voluntarily" offering to make revisions in nine places in the textbook.
"They even claimed that China's position was tantamount to demanding that Japan acknowledge itself as a country which committed aggression. Therefore, they could not agree," Zhang said.
"This claim exposes their true intention, which is to cover up the historical facts of the aggression waged by Japan," Zhang pointed out.
Their claim also does not comply with Japan's attitude of reflecting upon history, she said.
"It must be pointed out that there is irrefutable evidence for the history of Japanese militarists'aggression against China, and the evidence is acknowledged worldwide. This evidence cannot be randomly denied or tampered with by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform," Zhang said.
(Xinhua News Agency 07/04/2001)
