Beijing, March 11, SPA -- China on Saturday condemned as "brutalinterference" a comment by Japan's foreign ministerdescribing Taiwan as a country, the latest salvo in anescalating war of words between Beijing and Tokyo. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who has riled China inrecent months with a series of critical comments, told aparliamentary committee that Japan and Taiwan shareddemocracy and a market economy. "Its democracy is considerably matured and liberaleconomics is deeply ingrained, so it is a law-abidingcountry," Aso said Thursday in reference to Taiwan. "Invarious ways it is a country that shares a sense of valueswith Japan." Although Taiwan has been self-ruled since splitting withthe mainland amid civil war in 1949, China claims theisland as a province and stridently objects to othergovernments describing it as a country. Aso's comments "are a brutal interference in China'sinternal affairs and territorial sovereignty," said astatement issued Saturday by the Information Office of theState Council, China's Cabinet. In a separate commentary, China's official Xinhua NewsAgency accused Aso of taking an "uncompromisinglyhard-line attitude toward China" to curry favor withJapan's right-wing nationalists. "As Japan's top diplomat, Aso has also failed to honorthe Japanese government's commitment, and has thus weakenedTokyo's credibility," Xinhua said in the statement issuedSaturday on its Web site. "It is extremely unwise for a Japanese foreign ministerto make provocative remarks time and time again on theissue of Taiwan, which is of central interest to China,"it said.--SPA 14 22 Local Time 11 22 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/338234