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A Chinese marine surveillance ship cruises near the disputed islets in the East China Sea on July 24, 2013/AFP

Focus on China

Japan summons China envoy over ships incursion row

A Chinese boycott of Japanese brands quickly followed, weighing on exports to the key market.

The territorial tensions and maritime skirmishes have all but frozen relations between Japan and China.

A survey found Thursday that Chinese and Japanese people hold the least favourable views of each others’ countries for almost a decade.

A total of 92.8 percent of Japanese people have a bad or relatively bad impression of China, while 90.1 percent of Chinese hold similar feelings towards Japan, according to the poll by the state run China Daily and Japanese thinktank Genron NPO.

On Tuesday, Beijing issued strong criticism after Japan unveiled its biggest warship since World War II, a $1.2 billion helicopter carrier aimed at playing a major role in disaster and rescue missions, as well as defending sea lanes and Japanese territory.

“We express our concern at Japan’s constant expansion of its military equipment. This trend is worthy of high vigilance by Japan’s Asian neighbours and the international community,” China’s defence ministry told AFP.

“Japan should learn from history, adhere to its policy of self-defence and abide by its promise of taking the road of peaceful development.”

The comments came as Tokyo mulls a possible overhaul of the pacifist constitution imposed on Japan by the United States and its allies after WWII, stirring strong emotions among Japan’s neighbours.

Beijing and Seoul have long maintained that Tokyo has never come to terms with its militaristic past, including the brutal 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.

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Japan’s well funded and well equipped military is referred to as the Self Defense Forces, and is barred from taking aggressive action.

Any move to beef up the military would require constitutional change, a move that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative administration has been eyeing since it swept December elections.

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