China tells Japan to face up to wartime sex crimes

BEIJING, March 6 (Reuters) Japan must confront its past of coercing women into prostitution with Japanese troops in World War Two, China's foreign minister said today, nonetheless stressing hopes of improved ties between the two Asian powers.

''The forced use of so-called 'comfort women' was one of the most serious crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists in World War Two,'' Li Zhaoxing told a news conference on the sidelines of China's annual meeting of parliament.

''Comfort women'' is a euphemism for wartime sex slaves.

''I think the Japanese government should recognise historical facts, and should accept the responsibility to earnestly and appropriately deal with this problem,'' Li said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stirred fresh anger in Asian countries last week with comments that there was no evidence to validate claims that Asian women were coerced into serving as sex slaves for the Japanese army.

Many historians estimate that as many as 200,000 ''comfort women'' were forced into the Imperial Japanese Army's brothels. Most women were from Korea but women from China, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia were also involved.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is due to visit Japan in April as the two Asian powers seek to ease long-running hostility centred on their wartime past and China's rising regional ambitions.

In his comments, Li avoided directly criticising Abe by name and stressed his hopes that Wen's visit will bring the two wartime foes closer together -- a rhetorical contrast to past years when Japan's treatment of its wartime misdeeds dragged relations into frosty confrontation.

''This year marks the 35th anniversary of normalisation of ties between China and Japan, and we should take in hand this important opportunity to develop China-Japan relations,'' Li said.

''We're willing to strengthen cooperation with Japan in every sphere,'' he said, adding that China wants to amicably settle a dispute over the two countries' boundary in the East China Sea.

Once known for his tough talk towards China, Abe has worked to repair ties since taking office in September, partly by declining to say if he would visit a controversial shrine for Japan's war dead, seen by Beijing as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Before taking office, Abe had visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japanese World War Two leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal after Japan's defeat.

Wen's visit would be the first by a top Chinese leader since then-premier Zhu Rongji in October 2000. Li recently visited Japan to lay the groundwork for Wen's visit.

''I'm even more confident that Premier Wen Jiabao's formal visit to Japan will be a success,'' Li said.

Today, Taiwan -- the self-ruled island that China claims as its own -- expressed its ''severe opposition'' to Abe's comments. Taiwan wants Japan to apologise to and compensate the enslaved women, said the island's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

REUTERS MS PM174