Japan's attempts to deny aggression undermine its credit: Chinese FM

China on Thursday said Japan's denials of its wartime atrocities erode its international standing.

"It is irrefutable that the Nanjing Massacre was a cruel crime that the Japanese militarists committed during Japan's war on China. Any attempts to overturn its aggression past only erode Japan's international credit," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at the daily press briefing on Thursday.

Hong's comments came one day after Kyodo quoted the Japanese government sources as saying Japan told China in late December that it was not appropriate for Chinese President Xi Jinping to state that the number of victims of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre totaled "300,000."

The Nanjing Massacre was one of three major massacres during WWII. It was an atrocious anti-human crime and a dark page in the history of humanity, Xi said on Dec. 13 last year when he addressed a state commemoration for China's first National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims.

"We urge Japan to correct its attitude and honor its commitment to face up to and reflect on its aggressive past," Hong said.

Japanese troops captured Nanjing, then China's capital, on Dec. 13 of 1937 and started a 40-odd-day slaughter. More than 300,000 Chinese soldiers, who had laid down their arms, and civilians were murdered and over 20,000 women were raped. Endi