China protests Japanese leader's Yasukuni Shrine offerings

China firmly opposes and strongly condemns Japanese leader and politicians' recent offerings and visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, and has lodged solemn representations and strong protests with Japan, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday.

Mao made the remarks after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering to the war-linked shrine on Saturday and made a monetary offering on Monday. Several Japanese government officials, senior figures from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and lawmakers also visited the shrine in recent days.

Mao said the shrine is a spiritual tool and symbol of Japanese militarism's wars of aggression and it honors 14 Class-A war criminals who bore grave responsibility for those wars.

Japanese leaders and politicians are fully aware of this history but continue to pay homage at the shrine, she said.

Their actions expose their deeply rooted, erroneous views of history and sinister intentions to exonerate war criminals, whitewash aggression and pave the way for "remilitarization", Mao said.

Noting that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials which convicted 25 Class-A Japanese war criminals, Mao urged Japan to face up to history, reflect on its war crimes and stop trying to turn back the wheel of history.

Japan should earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community through concrete actions, she added.