GUATEMALA CITY -- It is a constant refrain of officials in Beijing that no other country should interfere with its internal affairs or even pass comment on events that occur inside China. However, this insistence on "noninterference" only works one way since Chinese officials often venture opinions on the internal events in other countries.
For example, Chinese authorities voiced opposition when members of Japan's Self-Defense Forces joined the coalition in Iraq. China Daily, one of the official Communist Party mouthpieces, insisted that such a deployment of troops contravened Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. In a supreme act of hypocrisy, the authoritarian and autocratic communist regime is demanding that another country accept the rule of law.
And Beijing often raises objections when Japanese leaders visit the Yasukuni Shrine. While the shrine honors Japan's war dead and includes convicted Japanese Class-A war criminals, it is hypocritical to intrude into what is effectively a domestic issue for Japan. After the last visit of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the shrine in January, China voiced its "strong indignation and sense of reproach." (Seoul and Taipei also expressed strong objections to each of the four visits by Koizumi to the Shinto memorial.)