A tourist is visiting  the Memorial Hall of Nanjing Massacre on September 18, 2011. Photo: Chinanews.com

The Nanjing city government defended its officials Tuesday after Internet users accused local authorities of being slow in responding to Nagoya mayor Takashi Kawamura's denial of the Nanjing Massacre.

"The delegation, led by Liu Zhiwei, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee (CPCNMC), responded to Kawamura's claims during their talks Monday in Nagoya," Chen Hua, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the CPCNMC's Publicity Department, told the Global Times, without offering details.

The statement contradicted a report by Kyodo News that Liu did not challenge Kawamura's view at the meeting and "shook hands with the mayor while exchanging gifts with him," causing public anger.

According to Kyodo, Kawamura, whose father was in Nanjing in 1945, told Liu on Monday that he believes only "conventional acts of combat" took place there, not the mass murders and rapes cited in history books.

"Why were people in Nanjing kind to Japanese soldiers only eight years after the incident?" Kawamura asked, referring to his father's memories of the event. "I could go to Nanjing and attend a debate on the history of the city, if necessary."

More than 300,000 civilians and captive soldiers were slain in the Nanjing Massacre, which occurred after the invading Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, then capital of China, on December 13, 1937.

Liu's delegation said Tuesday on Nanjing's official Sina Weibo that after Monday's talks, officials in Nagoya explained to them repeatedly that the mayor's remarks were made in a personal capacity and did not represent the city.

The two cities became twinned in 1978. The Nanjing city government announced Tuesday that it would halt all official exchanges with the Nagoya government.

Online criticism has leveled at Liu and his delegation for not rebutting Kawamura immediately during the meeting.

By 10 pm Tuesday, about 1,200 Internet users commented on the subject on Nanjing's official Weibo, most of which condemned the delegation's slow response. Some of the posters demanded Liu's resignation or the end of the twinning with Nagoya.

Chen said such feelings were the result of misleading media reports on Monday's meeting.

Zhang Quanling, a senior host on China Central Television, commented that the response seemed a little late, allowing Japanese media to take advantage of the delay.

"Some Chinese officials have little knowledge of diplomacy. To avoid making mistakes, they choose to react afterward. The following of routine has caused them to lose their initiative," Zhang wrote.

Also on Monday, China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei rebutted Kawamura's comments, saying there is irrefutable evidence proving the Nanjing Massacre took place.

Liu Jiangyong, a professor at the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that Kawamura's claims reflected problems in Japan's political sphere in terms of facing up to history and taking responsibility.

"Kawamura's remarks indicated his political tendency toward Japan's right-wing groups, which deny the Nanjing Massacre and promote textbooks that gloss over the country's war atrocities."

According to Kyodo, in September 2009, Kawamura told the Nagoya Municipal Assembly he had doubts about the death toll of the Nanjing Massacre.

On Monday, Zhu Chengshan, head of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, slammed Kawamura's remarks as "nonsense."

In a public letter, Zhu wrote that Kawamura's irresponsible claims showed a major disrespect for history, which will mislead young people in Japan and damage ties between the two sides.

Noting that Kawamura's words did not represent the Japanese government, Liu warned that if officials in Tokyo fail to address Beijing's concerns over right-wing extremism in Japan, bilateral exchanges between the two sides would be damaged.

In August, the education board of Japanese city of Yokohama, adopted history and civics textbooks compiled by controversial publishing house Ikuhosha to be used at 147 public junior high and other schools from this spring.

The textbooks refer to the Pacific War as the Greater East Asian War or as a war for Japan's survival and self-defense. Opponents accused the textbooks of "justifying wars," Kyodo reported.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the normalization of ties between the two countries.

Yang Jinghao and angencies contributed to this story