| FM: Japan military 'gossiping' hides issueBy Cao Desheng (China Daily)
 Updated: 2005-12-09 06:05
 
 
 Japan should explain its own military tendencies to the world before 
gossiping about other nations' national defence expenditure, a Foreign Ministry 
spokesman said yesterday. 
 
 
 
 Referring to Japanese Foreign 
Minister Taro Aso's remarks about China's military budget, Foreign Ministry 
spokesman Qin Gang said it was Japan's recent moves that should cause serious 
concern among the international community.
 | 
  Foreign Ministry 
 Spokesman Qin Gang answers a question at the ministry's routine press 
 briefing in Beijing December 8, 2005. 
[fmprc.gov.cn]
 |  Aso said in a speech in Tokyo on Wednesday that China needs to embrace 
political transparency and be more open about its military budget to ensure its 
rising economic and diplomatic power is not seen as a threat in Asia. 
 "China has repeated that its military budget is open and transparent," Qin 
said. "A white paper on national defence published last December clearly mapped 
out the military expenditure last year." 
 He added China adopts a defensive national defence policy. "I feel Japan 
should interpret its military tendencies to the world." 
 Japan's Liberal Democratic Party has been pushing for the post-World War II 
pacifist constitution reform to begin by calling government troops the Japanese 
Military instead of the Self Defence Force. 
 The constitution drafted by US occupation forces and unchanged since 1947 
bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits 
maintaining armed forces for warfare. 
 Meantime, Japanese troops have taken an increasingly high-profile role in 
recent years, prompting some critics to accuse Tokyo of moving away from its 
post-war pacifism. 
 Earlier in 2001, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pushed through 
special legislation to let the navy provide logistical support to forces in 
Afghanistan for the US "war on terror." 
 Analysts say such efforts are chipping away at the pacifist society Japan has 
built since World War II. 
 
 
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