China Thursday reiterated its principle of "taking history as a mirror and looking forward to the future" as the country mourned the victims of the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese 70 years ago.
"We commemorate the day, to ponder upon the past, which can provide guidance in days to come, to take history as a mirror and look forward to the future, and to cherish peace," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang in response to a question at a regular press conference.
"The Chinese government advocates developing a lasting neighborly relationship of friendly cooperation with Japan, based on the spirit of taking history as a mirror and looking forward to the future," said Qin.
He invited the press corps to observe a moment of silence with him for those killed in the Nanjing Massacre before he answered.
He said China hoped that this spirit would permeate, from beginning to end, the development of China-Japan relations, and inspire the two sides to continuously draw lessons from history, in a bid to cherish the good momentum of the improvement and development of China-Japan relations.
He urged joint efforts to continuously develop friendship between China and Japan and enhance cooperation, so as to promote the development of friendly relations for generations.
Bells tolled in Nanjing as nearly 10,000 people gathered Thursday in the eastern China city at 10:00 a.m. to commemorate the 300,000 lives lost to Japanese forces 70 years ago.
The Japanese occupied Nanjing, then capital of China, on Dec.13, 1937, and began a six-week massacre. More than 300,000 people, including unarmed soldiers, civilians, women and children, were killed, according to historical records.
Source: Xinhua
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