Beijing urges Tokyo not to 'impose its will' on Africa

Beijing has urged Tokyo "not to impose its will upon African countries" after Japan failed to insert maritime security issues into an outcome document of a recent Japan-Africa ministerial meeting on boosting Africa's development.

"The content about maritime issues was completely unilaterally brought up by Japan. No single attending African country echoed it, and many African countries made comments to voice their objection," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Aug 28.

Experts say Tokyo was using the meeting to push African countries to follow its containment strategy against China on the South China Sea issue.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono made maritime issues one of his key points as he attended the two-day ministerial meeting of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, on Aug 24 and 25.

Leading Japanese media, including Fuji Television, claimed after the meeting on Aug 25 that a statement was passed to stress the importance of honoring maritime rules based on international law.

However, the Chinese spokeswoman said that the meeting did not pass a statement but rather a meeting summary about the related discussions.

Mozambique Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Oldemiro Baloi said at a joint news conference with Japan that the conference was a venue for discussing development and cooperation and should not be politicized, Hua noted.

Discussions at the meeting about maritime security were only about those in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, the minister said.

Hua said China "expects Japan to fully respect African countries when promoting the development of Africa".

Japan should sincerely help the African countries rather than imposing its will on them and alienate their ties with others, Hua added.

Tang Jiaxuan, former state councilor and chairman of the China-Japan Friendship Association, has said that as disagreements between China and Japan linger. One of the symptoms is that Japan attempts to contain China by hyping the South China Sea issue on international occasions.

Tang spoke at a recent seminar on China-Japan ties hosted by the Institute of Japan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

Wang Weiguang, president of the academy, said some Japanese politicians and groups fail to correctly view China's development.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/01/2017 page3)