China tells Shinzo Abe to take 'responsible attitude' to Japan's wartime actions

China yesterday hit back at Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to forgo a formal apology for his country's wartime actions during a landmark address to the US Congress.

"We urge the Japanese government leader to adopt a responsible attitude towards history," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

In his speech on Wednesday, instead of offering a formal apology, Abe said he felt "repentance" towards US war dead. He also made no mention of "comfort women", the Japanese euphemism for thousands of Asian women forced into prostitution at Japanese military brothers in the second world war.

Hong said Abe should "honour statements and commitments that face up to and express deep reflection on history, including the Murayama Statement". He was referring to the 1995 apology by then-prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, which expressed his "heartfelt apology" for Japan's role in the war.

Da Zhigang, a Japanese affairs expert at the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said Abe's remarks were unlikely to push Sino-Japanese ties back to the chill of 2013, when Beijing named Abe an "unwelcome person" after his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, which houses war criminals. But he added, "It will add difficulty to the slightly improved ties."

Da said Beijing would be upset by such rhetoric, and that it would weigh on bilateral relations in the long term.