Former PLA official rebuffs Abe adviser   

安倍智囊发表挑衅言论 解放军少将表示震惊和悲哀

中华能源基金委员会主办的“中美对话”第三届研讨会20日在香港举行。安倍内阁官房参与(外交事务)谷内正太郎在研讨会的发言稿中对中国横加指责，原中国国防大学战略研究所所长潘振强少将表示感到非常震惊和悲哀。

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.