Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

China is deeply concerned about Japan's insidious moves on historical and territorial issues when authorizing textbooks, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday after Japan's Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Technology approved a batch of elementary school textbooks that promote Japan's unilateral territorial claims, downplay and distort the historical facts of Japan's forced conscription and enslavement of laborers to cover up the atrocities during its colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday has lodged a protest with Japan over descriptions in new textbooks, expressing deep regret over Japan's decision to authorize the use of textbooks that contained expressions about thorny issues related to territory and history, including its claims over a group of islets.

The ministry also said that "expressions over wartime forced labor were trivialized" in the textbooks and urged Japan to sincerely reflect on its wartime history and past apologies.

"Japan has to take more responsible actions especially in educating the future generations as their proper perception over history is the start of building constructive future-oriented relationships," said Lim Soo-suk, the ministry's spokesperson.

It is common for Japan to play with words when authorizing textbooks to obscure historical facts, understate and evade its historical responsibility, and thereby deny and misrepresent its history of aggression, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a routine press conference on Wednesday.

Mao said that the war of aggression waged by Japanese militarists brought untold suffering to the people of victimized countries. Forced recruitment and enslavement of laborers are grave crimes committed by Japanese militarists. Those crimes are backed by ironclad evidence and shall not be denied.

Besides, the Diaoyu Islands and its adjacent islands have been China's territory since antiquity. Whatever Japan's textbook says, it is not going to change the fact that the Diaoyu Islands belong to China, Mao said.

China urges Japan to take seriously the concerns of its Asian neighbors and the international community. At the same time, Japan needs to shape its young generation's view of history in a truthful way. Otherwise, Japan will lose the trust among its Asian neighbors and the wider international community, Mao stressed.