The outcome of China's President Jiang Zemin's visit to Japan has
received two
diametrically different commentaries from the news media.  The majority
of the media in the
West considered Japan's refusal to offer official apology as regrettable
and Mr. Jiang's
failure to make Japan agree with his proposal to normalize Sino-Japanese
relations as a
debacle.  The commentary published in Chinese show a unanimous outrage
regarding Japan's
denial of war responsibility, and praise Mr. Jiang for raising the issue
that Japan must
face its past, there being a consensus that Chinese people feel pleased
and proud on
account of Mr. Jiang's stand.

Anti-China Sentiment in the West   Since the June 4 (Tiananman )
incident and the
dissolution of the Warsaw pact Communist states, there has been seldom a
good word for
China, with no exception regarding Mr. Jiang's visit.  While the news
media in the West one
after the other regard China's diplomatic initiative as a debacle, there
is not even a
footnote to show the qualitative and quantitative differences between
Germany and Japan in
confronting their historical responsibility.  There results the
impression that China's
demand for apology from Japan does not make sense and Japan has scored
in a diplomatic
match.

Other media reports show also that lately the anti-China sentiment has
reached its apogee.
For example, the Indonesia's violent persecution of ethnic Chinese since
last May has been
reported lightly with comments as follows: the ethnic Chinese control
Indonesian economy
and deserve being hated by other ethnic groups.  Such comments insinuate
that one would
consider the ethnic cleaning as the elimination of greed and corruption.

It is well known that the ethnic Chinese do not control the manufacture
of consumer goods
for the Indonesian market, from the automobiles on the road to the
electric appliances in
the home.  The majority of them are engaged in retail trade, for the
same reason why the
European Jews before the war pursued retail and similar occupations, as
a result of
discrimination against their employment in government, military, police,
etc.  Historical
studies have shown that in Europe whenever there was an economic crisis
anti-Semitic
incidents broke out with plunder or destruction of the Jewish
properties, using the excuse
that the Jews allegedly controlled the economy and hence were
responsible.

Today the same groundless excuse is used to justify ethnic cleaning of
the Chinese, for
'strategic reasons' to weaken China or isolate the Chinese, or due to a
subconscious
prejudice against the Chinese.  Now as a new century will soon arrive,
the plight of
Chinese people remains precariously at risk.  They need to deal with
outrageous treatment
of compatriots with kindred consciousness and ever more actively help
each other.  To
remain aloof will only result in becoming ever more powerless and
falling victims to racial
persecution.

Response from Chinese News Media   The Chinese media, with the exception
of a few in Hong
Kong and Taiwan, express righteous outrage toward Japan's arrogant
denial and one after the
other praise the stand Mr. Jiang has taken.  This reflects a natural
response from the
Chinese who have suffered greatly during the war.  Mr. Jiang told his
host that during the
Japan's invasion, China suffered a total casualty of thirty five million
and a loss of
property worth over 600 billion US dollars.  One should note also the
following statistics.
Warfare between states generally lead to a ratio of military to civilian
casualties of ten
to one.  Indeed, this is the case with the casualties for Japan.
However, China's
casualties show an abnormal ratio of one to ten.  (The USSR casualties
show a military to
civilian ratio of one to one.)  Thus, Japan's war atrocities perpetrated
a holocaust for
the Chinese, unprecedented in the human history.

Since the Opium War China has been mostly on the defensive and compelled
to submit to
foreign pressure.  It serves no useful purpose at present to revisit the
past and place the
blame.  The issue worthy raising now is whether with China's present
strength and
circumstance is it still necessary to compromise in order to remain
intact and whether
China will take the initiative to reverse the past trend of being forced
to compromise.
The  Japanese denial of war responsibility is due undoubtedly to the
pressure from its
right wing and militarist clique.   .  .  .  .     The days to humiliate
China with
impunity have passed.  The author fervently applauds Mr. Jiang for his
stand for China's
rightful claim and sincerely hopes that China will send Japan's right
wing a strong and
clear message concerning equitable resolution of the war responsibility
issue.