Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday blamed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine for the souring of bilateral ties, saying China would hold summit talks with Japan when the visits stop.
In a meeting with a group of key Japanese figures involved in Sino-Japanese ties including former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, Hu said China has no intention of becoming a threat to the rest of the world, Japanese participants in the meeting and Chinese state media said.
The meeting was the first in months between key Japanese figures and Hu, whose government has rejected top-level bilateral talks to protest Koizumi's Yasukuni visits.
''The current situation, under which Sino-Japanese relations are facing difficulties, is something that I do not want to see,'' China Central Television quoted Hu as saying.
''The cause for this does not lie with China or with the Japanese people. The problem is the fact that a small number of Japanese leaders are visiting Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines Class-A war criminals,'' Hu was quoted as saying.
China has complained bitterly about Koizumi's Yasukuni visits, saying they show that Japan does not truly repent its wartime atrocities.
Following Koizumi's latest visit to Yasukuni in October, China has halted bilateral summit talks.
Hu said in Friday's meeting that summit talks between the two countries can be held as soon as the shrine visits are discontinued, according to CCTV as well as the Japanese participants.
Hashimoto quoted Hu as saying in the meeting that China ''has no plans to take steps aimed at achieving hegemony.''
The comment comes at a time when calls are growing from countries such as Japan and the United States for China to boost transparency over its military buildup.
Other members of the Japanese delegation include former Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, who heads a lawmakers' group on Sino-Japanese ties, and Katsuya Okada, former head of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
Non-politician members include Ikuo Hirayama, a renowned artist and head of the Japan-China Friendship Association.
''This is a strong message for the Japanese people,'' an official of a Chinese organization on bilateral ties involved in Friday's events said of Hu's comments.
''The clear distinction on where the responsibilities for the worsening of ties lie -- not with the Japanese people but with the premier's shrine visits -- should be noted,'' the official said.
The meeting Friday came as a spat continued between the two countries over the May 2004 suicide of an official at the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai, whom Tokyo says killed himself because of pressure from Chinese agents.
Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun reported the contents of the suicide notes by the official on Friday. The paper quoted the notes as saying that Chinese agents tried to extract information from him.
China rejected Japan's claim once again on Friday, saying that China had nothing to do with the suicide.
China also filed a protest with Japan over its textbooks on Friday, summoning Japan's minister at its embassy in Beijing to complain about the Japanese government's call to clarify disputed isles in the East China Sea as Japanese territory in the textbooks.
The isles, known as Senkaku in Japan, are called Diaoyu in China and are also claimed by Taiwan.
The meeting Friday was the first between Hu and key Japanese figures since September, when the Chinese leader met privately with Hiroshi Okuda, head of the Japan Business Federation, Japan's biggest business lobby.
The last time Hu talked with Japanese politicians was last May, when he met with secretaries general of the two parties in Japan's ruling coalition.
The meeting between Hu and the Hashimoto group comes as politicians in Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party consider who will succeed him when he steps down from office, likely in September.

Kyodo News

I applaud hu jin tao for this. China shold stick to its guns because this is something that truly affects us and if koizumi and japan still sees fit to go ahead with the shrine visits anyways then we don't need to hold meetings with them because they have already proven by their actions that what we want and what affects us isn't really important so whats to make us believe they'll cooperate and listen when we hold meetings about improving bilateral relations??? It be a complete waste of time they want to be hard headed about this then we will too.

Meh, I dont think he should stop visiting

Meh, I think he should. So I guess that puts us at a deadlock once again.

lol I suppose it does

You got that right

yay! what a good man. he knows how the people feel. thats a good leader!

Hu Jintao always looks constipated.

now, it's really up to koizumi.

That sounds reasonable.

If Japan has any back bone they wll continue the shrine visits...its all a game to China/Japan...like butting heads politically...the first to back down will show themselves as the weaker state...

This is so freakin stupid, everyone knows Koizumi is gonna resign this year so what it really means is nothing. I doubt if the next PM has the balls like Koizumi visit so by then there won't be any problem.

Stronger China = Stronger National support...

I think what the CCP really wants is US's out of Japan,not the stop of shrine visits.

True; True; unrelated.

I think Kozima should do what he wants to do, Hu will do what he wants to do which to have nothing to do with Kozima. End of story.

^ Agreed. China has no power over what to do to Japan. Japan is a soverign country, let it do whatever it wants. But the Japanese shouldn't b!tch back if we hate on them.