China to honour its Second World War veterans

China today unveiled plans to honour its Second World War veterans with gala celebrations and renewed its call for Japan to take more responsibility for wartime atrocities.

Planned festivities include a wreath-laying ceremony with 10,000 people on Saturday in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, the symbolic political heart of the country.

Japan’s prime minister apologised for wartime aggression on August 15, the anniversary of Tokyo’s surrender in 1945. But “we think the Japanese government should translate this type of statement into action,” said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Lu Xinhua.

“Due to the actions of Japanese leaders in recent years, we have had some difficulties in China-Japan relations,” Lu said at a news conference, citing Japanese leaders’ repeated visits to a Tokyo war shrine and schoolbooks that critics say gloss over Tokyo's war record.

Relations were strained by anti-Japan riots in Chinese cities earlier this year. In Beijing, crowds stoned the Japanese Embassy as police watched.

But officials today said China wouldn’t use its war commemorations to drum up anti-Japan sentiment.

“We celebrate with patriotism, not with narrow nationalism,” said Wang Guoqing, vice minister of the Chinese Cabinet’s press office.

The ruling Communist Party has been using the war anniversary to polish its patriotic credentials, highlighting its record as an anti-Japanese guerrilla force.

Wang said China played the decisive role in defeating the Japanese invaders, while most historians abroad agree that the United States and former Soviet Union were the main forces in Japan’s defeat.

Among China’s planned festivities are a gala night at the Great Hall of the People, home of China’s legislature. A flower laying ceremony in Tiananmen Square on Saturday morning will feature 10,000 participants including top leaders.

Also on Saturday, President Hu Jintao will present medals to hundreds of war veterans from China and its wartime allies. Guests have been invited from 20 countries including the United States, Canada, Russia, Ukraine and both North and South Korea.

Veterans from China’s arch rival Taiwan will also be on hand, officials said. China’s wartime rulers, the Nationalists, lost a civil war to the communists in 1949 and fled to Taiwan.

“Many Nationalist generals and soldiers fought valiantly,” said Wang Zaixi, Vice Minister of China’s Taiwan affairs office. “They are the heroes and martyrs of our nation.”