China-Japan feud heats up

TOKYO — Japan began processing applications to let companies explore a disputed area of the East China Sea for natural gas, a decision China called a "provocation" in a disagreement that could hurt Japan's bid for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi denied yesterday's action had anything to do with a feud between Japan and China over Japan's World War II aggression.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang called Japan's decision a "provocation," according to China's official Xinhua News Agency yesterday. He said China protested to Japan and would "retain the right to make further reaction," Xinhua reported.

Last weekend, anti-Japanese protests erupted in Beijing and two other Chinese cities, sparked by Japan's approval of a history textbook that critics said plays down Japanese military abuses such as the forced wartime prostitution of thousands of Asian women. In Beijing, protesters pelted the Japanese Embassy with rocks and bottles and attacked Japanese businesses.

Japan demanded compensation and an official apology. China refused. Tuesday, China's premier hinted that his country might exercise its veto as one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to block Japan's bid for a permanent seat.

China, South Korea and other Asian nations have long accused Japan of failing to express adequate contrition for its conquests of the 1930s and '40s, during which China says as many as 30 million of its people died.

The tensions also reflect Chinese unease at Japan's new political and military ambitions and competition for possible energy sources. China regards Japan as a rival for status as the region's dominant power. China and Japan are, respectively, the world's second- and third-biggest oil consumers, after the United States.

Yesterday, North Korea, an ally of China, added its voice to criticism of the new Japanese textbooks.

"This betrays philistinism peculiar to Japan, a vulgar and shameless political dwarf," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the North's official news agency.

Eight South Korean lawmakers visiting Tokyo yesterday told Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura that Tokyo should "correct its attitude" and stop defending its wartime past. They also said Japan should drop its claim to sovereignty over islets that are claimed by South Korea and Japan in a separate dispute between the two countries.

Japan has said the gas fields where China is test-drilling might extend into Japan's waters, but China said its surveys are within its exclusive economic zone. Japan's trade ministry said yesterday that it will allow gas drilling in waters east of what it says is its sea border with China. China disputes that border.

Japan has repeatedly protested Chinese exploration of the fields, saying the activities extend into Japan's exclusive economic zone. But China refused to halt them or share the results.