China on Abe's Pearl Harbor visit: sincere reflection "only key" to reconciliation

BEIJING -- China on Tuesday responded to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Pearl Harbor visit by urging him to sincerely reflect on the country's history of aggression rather than offering diplomatic displays.

"It is only a one-sided wish that he wants to put an end to the history of World War II by just visiting Pearl Harbor," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying at a daily press briefing.

Abe is in Hawaii, where he will take part in a remembrance ceremony at the USS Arizona monument with U.S. President Barack Obama.

On Dec 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, a US naval base, where thousands of US sailors and marines were killed.

China was the main theater in the Asia-Pacific for the World Anti-Fascist War, and the Chinese people made major contributions to the victory, said Hua.

According to statistics, Chinese military and civilian casualties totaled approximately 35 million, accounting for one-third of the total casualties suffered by all countries during WWII.

"Japan can never turn the page without reconciliation with the victim countries in Asia, including China," Hua said.

She urged the Japanese leader not to "dodge the core issue, and to make a sincere and profound reflection upon its aggression history" so as to "make a clean break from the past".

"Sincere reflection is the only key to the reconciliation," she added.