Beijing seizes japan textbooks for lies
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-29 11:22

Textbooks headed for a Japanese school in China were seized by customs officials who objected to the way maps in the books depicted the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, an official said Tuesday.

A member of Taiwan's Labor Party demonstrates outside the Interchange Association, in Taipei, protesting an amendment in Japanese history textbooks. [AP]

The maps showed the mainland and the island in different colors, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, indicating that Beijing was concerned this might make Taiwan seem like a separate country.

"The Japanese textbooks showed China and Taiwan in different colors," Liu said at a regular news briefing. "The 'one-China principle' is paramount, so it is legitimate for China's customs to handle this according to the law."

The 180 books had been bound for a Japanese school in the northeastern city of Dalian.

Chinese officials also objected to the books because they identified a set of islands in the East China Sea as part of Japanese territory.

Beijing and Tokyo have a long-running feud over the islands — called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan — which are believed to lie near oil and gas resources.

Japan's Kyodo News agency reported that the customs office in Dalian demanded the school pay a $120 fine and present an explanation to Chinese authorities.

It wasn't known if the fine was paid.

Japan-China relations have been strained by a separate dispute over Japanese textbooks that critics say minimize Tokyo's wartime aggression.

In April, protests erupted across China over that dispute and Tokyo's campaign for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat.

Close

Demi Moore: conquer aging with baby Lin Chih-ling injured in horse fall Jolie adopts Ethiopian AIDS orphan

Today's Top News     Top Life News
Taiwan's KMT Party to elect new leader Saturday         'No trouble brewing,' beer industry insists         Critics see security threat in Unocal bid         DPRK: Nuke-free peninsula our goal         Workplace death toll set to soar in China         No foreign controlling stakes in steel firms	A novel without a word telling a love story?       108 Chinese grassroots women in race for Nobel       Mainland celebrities' ID card photos exposed online       An honesty crisis has hit Chinese fledglings       Distorted textbooks applied to Japanese students       Granny grows tired of prostitution at age 63