Does Japan put itself in China's place?

BEIJING, July 31 -- A riot occurred in Urumqi, the capital of China's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on July 5. And three and a half weeks later, on July 29, Rebiya Kadeer, a chief instigator unceasingly fanning unrest among her followers, spoke a lot of nonsense in Japan to viciously slander and smear the Chinese government.

Recently, the Chinese government lodged a solemn representation in advance to the Japanese government, but the Japanese side paid no attention to it and instead insisted on letting Rebiya visit Japan as planned.

With the exception of Prime Minster Yasuo Fukuda's cabinet, leaders of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in power have repeatedly allowed former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui and the Dalai Lama to visit Japan since 2000 and made the Chinese side strongly resentful.

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted Rebiya Kadeer an entry permit this time with a subsequent recurrence of frictions between China and Japan, and this has drawn simultaneous denunciations from Chinese netizens. The Japanese side, however, took China's representation merely as a routine business that would not impact bilateral ties.

Nevertheless, Japanese authorities have never crossed their mind to deem Li Teng-hui, the Dalai Lama and Rebiya as bigwigs to separate China, representing the "Taiwan Independence", "Tibet Independence" and "Xinjiang Independence".

The Japanese government granted them their entry into the Japanese territory to engage in activities designed to split China and thus deepened the misunderstanding of Japanese citizens about China. This is unconducive not only to the establishment of political mutual-trust between the two East Asia neighbors and but to the betterment of popular sentiments among people of both countries. The Chinese government gave Japan advices proceeding precisely from the overall situation of defending the ethnical unity and social stability at home and spurring the improvement and healthy growth of Sino-Japanese ties.