Japan must stop playing with fire

The Japanese government's illegal "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets has greatly hurt the feelings of 1.3 billion Chinese people.

The Japanese government signed a "purchasing" contract with the so-called "owner" on the morning of Sept. 11. The senior government officials of Japan constantly threw out absurd speeches to embolden themselves, such as "purchasing the islands is just for smooth and steady management of them" and "purchasing islands just means that the ownership of some Japanese lands is transferred from a private owner to the country so it should not cause conflict with other countries."

The statement that the Diaoyu Islands is Japanese territory and there is not a territorial dispute between China and Japan completely ignored the historical facts and legal principles and violated the consensus reached by the older generation of Chinese and Japanese leaders on the Diaoyu Islands. It was a misjudgment to the will and executive power of Chinese government and people to safeguard their sovereignty and territorial integrity and even a blatant challenge to the fruits of the world's anti-fascist war and post-war international order. The despicable act of stealing Chinese territory in the name of "purchase" exposed Japan's sinister plot.

Japan infringed China's territorial sovereignty while brazenly announcing that "it hopes that the Diaoyu Islands issue would not affect the overall China-Japan relations." The behavior of duplicity cannot deceive anyone.