China wrong to put history first in Japan ties - envoy
Japanese Consul-General Takanori Kitamura also said China's economic might and fast-growing military expenditures posed big question for Beijing and others in the region.
"We need to handle the history issue carefully, but I find it inappropriate that the history issue is set as a precondition for addressing issues in other areas," he said in a speech at Hong Kong University.
Sino-Japanese relations are at their worst state in decades, chilled by a raft of disputes including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which Beijing sees as a symbol of Japan's past militarism because it honours convicted war criminals along with the country's war dead.
Chinese President Hu Jintao said earlier this month that if Japan's leader made a "clear-cut decision" to stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine he would be willing to meet and improve ties.
Apart from Yasukuni, bilateral relations are frayed by disputes over ownership of energy resources and islands in the East China Sea. China and other Asian neighbours in the region are also upset over a history textbook that they say whitewashes Japan's wartime aggression.
Kitamura said people should read the Japanese texts and judge for themselves, noting that some translations into Chinese were available on the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Web site.
"Any textbook needs to provide a balanced picture, and I wish Chinese students will have a fair opportunity, through their textbooks, to come to know Japan's post-war achievements as it has build a peace-loving and democratic society," he added.
Kitamura also said that China's economic power, coupled with annual military expenditures that were growing faster than the economy, posed a "big question".
"How does China find its position in the existing political and economic order of this region? And conversely, how do the other countries in this region accommodate the rise of China?"