DHAKA: Chinese premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday praised the former Japanese government official who issued a landmark apology over the wartime sexual slavery of Asian women, hailing his ‘bravery’ in facing history.

Li greeted a trade delegation led by Yohei Kono, who as the country’s top government spokesman in 1993 issued an eponymous statement acknowledging the military’s involvement in a coercive ‘comfort women’ brothel system during World War II.

He did not admit government complicity in it, reports The Straits Times.

Relations between Beijing and Tokyo plunged in recent years over territorial disputes and wartime history.

They are trying to rebuild ties but China’s Communist leaders remain wary of Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’ nationalist views.

BDST: 1741 HRS, APR 14, 2015
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