BEIJING
Japanese PM Shinzo Abe became a "persona non grata in China" after his visit to Yasukuni war shrine, said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang on Monday.
Japanese PM on December 26 visited Yasukuni shrine that honors the 2.5 million Japanese men, including 14 convicted Class-A war criminals, who died serving the Emperor of Japan from 1867–1951. China and South Korea see Yasukuni as a symbol of Tokyo's aggression during World War Two, when Japan occupied large parts of China and the Korean peninsula.
PM Abe "has taken actions to worsen the relations with Beijing and hurting the feelings of Chinese people", said Gang during a press conference in Beijing.
Gang described the visit to the shrine "built to honor Class-A war criminals" as a "grievous mistake" which was made "despite Chinese objections". He said the incident proved that "Japanese leader's statements over improving ties with China and meeting with Chinese leaders are clear hypocricy".
China has no room for dialogue and "Abe has to accept his mistake and apologise from China and Chinese people", said Gang.
- "The ones in Yasukuni are the Asian Nazis"
"The ones buried in Yasukini Shrine are the master minds, initiators and implementers of the Japanese militarist invasionist movement, they are convicted war criminals, they are facists whose hands are drenched in Chinese blood and they are Asian Nazis", said the spokesperson.
"China and Chinese leaders do not want a Japanese leader who adopts a militarist, invasionist and imperialist stance and who rejects the international order built after World War Two", said Gang.
Global Times, an official daily Chinese newspaper, demanded last week Abe to be announced as persona non grata and to be blacklisted for visiting China.
China expressed anger last week over the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine, interpreting the incident as honoring Japan's war crimes during World War Two.
Chinese officials strongly protested and condemned the "unacceptable" visit, describing the shrine as a "spiritual means of Japan invasion and its symbol".
It was the first visit of a Japanese prime minister to the shrine after Junichiro Koizumi's 2006 visit.
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