China criticises "self-deceiving" Japanese politicians

Reuters ^ | 10/28/2013 | Reuters

[TexGrill]

(Reuters) - Japanese politicians are being provocative and are deceiving themselves about a territorial dispute, China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday, a day after Japan's prime minister said it was ready to be more assertive towards China.

Sino-Japanese ties have been overshadowed for years by what China says has been Japan's refusal to admit to atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in China between 1931 and 1945.

But relations have been further strained for months because of a dispute over tiny islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also told his troops on Sunday that Japan would not tolerate the use of force to change the region's status quo, an expression used by Japanese politicians and security experts to refer to what they see as China's aggressive maritime expansion.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, asked about Abe's comments, said Japanese leaders had been repeatedly making "provocative" remarks.

"This once again shows that Japanese politicians are deceiving themselves with their arrogance and guilty conscience," she told a daily news briefing.

[TexGrill]

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