BEIJING -Japan and China considered yesterday whether their leaders should meet this weekend to try to defuse the worst dispute in decades between the Asian powers, but at the same time they traded more angry words over anti-Japanese protests and Tokyo's wartime history.
China said Japan proposed that its prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, meet one-on-one with President Hu Jintao during a conference of Asian and African leaders in Indonesia.
We are still considering it
said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei.
Suggesting that plenty of work lay ahead before either leader might commit, Koizumi warned in Tokyo that if it's going to be the exchange of harsh words it's better not to meet.
The heated rhetoric and sometimes violent protests aimed at Japanese interests in China have raised worries about the potential effect on the economic relationship between Asia's two biggest economies, which are linked by billions of dollars in trade and investment.
Yesterday, the main Tokyo stock index fell 3.8 percent -its worst one-day drop in 11 months; analysts blamed the fall on the dispute and on the slide on Wall Street. Japanese companies with business links to China and the U.S. were hit especially hard.
China's government took another swipe at Tokyo yesterday, blaming Japan for the diplomatic spat and again accusing the Japanese of failing to face up to their militaristic past.
It shouldn't be us who should apologize Wu said at a news conference. It is Japan who should apologize.
Japan countered that Beijing had not shown remorse for Chinese rioters stoning the Japanese Embassy and a consulate in protests over Tokyo's campaign for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat and its approval of schoolbooks that critics say minimize Japanese wartime atrocities.
No matter what the reasons are
violence is not acceptable
Japan's chief Cabinet secretary, Hiroyuki Hosoda, said in Tokyo. We find it extremely regrettable that there was no apology.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan encouraged Hu and Koizumi to sit down together to settle the fight.
They have lots of relationship on all fronts -political
economic and social -and I hope those important aspects of their relationship will encourage them to resolve their differences
Annan said.
The rancor is fueled by Chinese anger at what many people consider Japan's failure to atone for its conquest of Asia and by the modern rivalry for energy resources and regional dominance.
That anger erupted into street protests after Japan approved new history textbooks. The books condense or omit references in earlier volumes to the Japanese military's germ warfare and sex slavery of Asian women. They only briefly mention the Nanjing Massacre of 1937, when Japanese soldiers killed tens of thousands of Chinese civilians.
In Asia, some joined China in calling on Japan to own up to its violent past.
We feel as Indonesians that all countries -including Japan -have to face the facts of history
said Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa.
Vietnam allowed a small weekend protest outside the Japanese Embassy in Hanoi.
China's leaders also are alarmed at proposals to give Japan a permanent seat on an expanded Security Council. Such status, with power to veto U.N. actions, is now held by only China, the United States, Russia, Britain and France, and Beijing is reluctant to dilute its influence as the only Asian member of that elite.
Yesterday, the new U.S. ambassador to Tokyo, J. Thomas Schieffer, endorsed Japan's U.N. ambitions.
We believe that Japan speaking with a louder voice in the world will actually increase the chances for peace and security
Schieffer said.
A poll released yesterday by the Japanese newspaper Mainichi said three-quarters of Japanese surveyed by telephone over the weekend thought Koizumi had not done enough to improve relations with China.
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