Former PLA official rebuffs Abe adviser   

安倍智囊發表挑釁言論 解放軍少將表示震驚和悲哀

中華能源基金委員會主辦的“中美對話”第三屆研討會20日在香港舉行。安倍內閣官房參與(外交事務)谷內正太郎在研討會的發言稿中對中國橫加指責，原中國國防大學戰略研究所所長潘振強少將表示感到非常震驚和悲哀。

Hong Kong (CNS) -- Retired PLA Major General Pan Zhenqiang refuted statements made by a top adviser to Japan's prime minister during a conference Sunday in Hong Kong.

Yachi Shotaro, a former senior diplomat now advising Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on foreign policy, said China will become an isolated superpower that is "much feared but not much liked."

Yachi said that China's territorial claim over the Diaoyu Islands violates international laws. Using military force and making threats will harm China's reputation across bordering regions and a broader area, he added.

Pan Zhenqiang, who is also the former director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University of China, said he was surprised and saddened by the statement. Yachi's words are "very rude and arrogant," he said.

Pan asked: "Does it benefit Japan to consider China an opponent? Aren't these wrong conceptions of history and values that Japan forces others to respect? Is it Japan's value of human rights that it refuses to face up to its history and to apologize for 'comfort women'?"

Yachi, who said the statement was his personal point of view, was absent from the conference. His speech was read by a former Japanese diplomatic official who said Japan's Peace Constitution is supported by the majority of the Japanese people.

The conference was held by the China Energy Fund Committee, a nonprofit, non-governmental think tank, to provide a platform for international communication.