Regarding the June 22 article "Don't deny Nanjing death toll: Beijing": I find it cynical for China to say that Japanese lawmakers show a lack courage for claiming that the "Rape of Nanking" death toll has been grossly inflated. Beijing demands that Japan face historical facts, but as a complete outsider, I would like to ask what right has China to accuse Japan of the same maladies that affect its own house?
What difference does it make whether the Japanese army was responsible for the deaths of 20,000 or 300,000 people in Nanjing in 1937? Under Chinese rule, the Great Leap Forward provoked a major economic disaster; scholars estimate that the "Three Bitter Years" led to the deaths of more than 20 million Chinese. Eastern and Western sources account for 500,000 deaths among civilians and Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1969). And during the military crackdown of the Tiananmen Square protest, 2,000 to 3,000 students died, according to the Chinese Red Cross; the Beijing government acknowledges only 200 to 300 deaths.
Chinese don't recognize who their real enemy is because their government conceals the truth. So, whose leaders are the ones with no courage? For a country that maintains a political taboo against revealing major political and historical events to its own citizens, it is deceitful at the very least to impugn another country's honesty.
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