China launches anti-Japanese petition on web
REUTERS[ SATURDAY, AUGUST 09, 2003 07:31:57 PM ]
BEIJING: More than 80,000 Chinese have signed an online petition against China buying Japanese technology for a planned $20 billion train linking Shanghai and Beijing, an anti-Japanese Web site said on Saturday.
The Patriotic Alliance Web site, www.1931-9-18.org, collected the signatures in eight days in July but was suspended on Friday on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the signing of a watershed Sino-Japanese friendship treaty.
Lu Yunfei, the Beijing-based computer engineer who designed the site, said the suspension was due to fears that security loopholes in the server could be exploited. The site was set to resume on Sunday.
But the politically sensitive timing gave rise to speculation China's Internet police, which block foreign news outlets and other politically sensitive sites, were responsible.
Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yasuo Fukuda -- whose father, former prime minister Takeo Fukuda, signed the treaty -- is due to arrive in Beijing on Saturday for talks with Chinese leaders to help defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis.
Asked if the shutdown was meant to prevent embarrassment for the Chinese government, Lu said: "The signature drive was not aimed at pressuring the (Chinese) government."
"It is merely to express our feelings and views," said Lu, 28. But he did not deny coming under government pressure.
The Web site contains essays and pictures and serves as a forum for contemporary criticism of Japan. The site's address commemorates the date the Japanese army began occupying northeast China, then known as Manchuria.
Japan's Transport Minister Chikage Ogi visited Beijing this week to pitch the shinkansen, or bullet train, technology for the 1,310 kilometre railway line. German and French companies are also vying for the project.
The petition argued China would undermine its national security by buying a Japanese train to connect its two most important cities. It also said Japan would not transfer its latest bullet-train technology to China and that it was unnecessary for China to support Japan's stagnant economy.
Resentment of Japan's wartime aggression runs deep among many Chinese, who feel Japan has not fully atoned for its past.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Too bad, the signiture has been suspended, otherwise I would like to sign it<g> |
