Beijing has underlined its continuing anger at Tokyo by authorising the publication of an article in an official newspaper likening the actions of Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister, to someone who purposely eats “rat excrement”.
The article in the People’s Daily, the Communist party’s mouthpiece, used the analogy to attack Mr Koizumi’s persistence in visiting Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo which honours Japan’s war dead, including war criminals.
It follows other statements by Japanese leaders that have enraged Beijing, most notably by Taro Aso, the foreign minister, who last week said Taiwan’s high educational standards were a legacy of Japanese colonial rule.