Zhao Qizheng, minister of the State Council Information Office, told a China-Japan media seminar in Tokyo: "The Internet is bringing us closer, and I hope that the Internet will be built into an important bridge between China and Japan."

More than 120 people attended the seminar, largest of its kind in recent years. This seminar, one of the important activities to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, is co-sponsored by the State Council Information Office and the Japanese Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association.

Zhao noted that the Internet had been developing fast in China in recent years. According to latest statistics, China has 33.7 million Internet users at the beginning of this year, the number of websites reached 280,000. It is forecast that by 2005, China's Internet users will reach over 200 million.

Zhao pointed out, however, there is still a "digital gap" in the world today. Of all the webpages in the world, English-language content accounts for about 70%, those in Japanese 5.9% and those in Chinese only 3.9%.

"This indicates that non-English-speaking Asian countries still have a long way to go," Zhao said.

He called on the two countries to strengthen cooperation in developing the Internet, to make greater efforts to increase information contents in their own languages so as to protect and develop their national cultures.

In answering questions about the recent case in the Japanese Consulate in Shenyang in Northeast China, Zhao said that he could not understand why the Japanese media had been playing up the case so much while the case is still under investigation by the Chinese and Japanese sides.

He said that the media, the public and the government have a kind of interactive relations. In a case like this, the media should play a "stabilizer" role, instead of making a hullabaloo.

Zhao said he believes that the Chinese armed police soldiers had placed the safety of the Japanese Consulate as the top priority when they blocked and dragged the intruders out of the consulate. After the September 11 terrorist attack last year, these armed police soldiers had strengthened anti-terrorist training and enhanced their sense security against terrorism.

The Chinese soldiers blocked the intruders in a very short time, even at the risk of sacrificing their own lives. Such risks did happen before. "I would like to show my respect to these armed police soldiers," Zhao said.

"If the Chinese armed police soldiers had not blocked this kind of people from intruding into the consulate, who knows what would happen. Besides, does the Japanese consulate wish to see more such intruders?" Zhao asked. "Why should we exaggerate this case to be an act of hostility? Why can't you see this case in a sensible way?"

Zhao said: "I believe that further investigations will show the true nature of the case. You can judge by yourselves whether China is acting in a hostile way."

(China Daily May 13, 2002)