According to Chinese government , the relationship between China and Japan has been strained at times by Japan 's refusal to acknowledge its wartime past to the satisfaction of China . However , according to Japanese government , the expansion of People 's Liberation Army and its assertive actions have been damaging the bilateral relation . Revisionist comments made by prominent Japanese officials and some Japanese history textbooks regarding the 1937 Nanking Massacre have been a focus of particular controversy . Sino-Japanese relations warmed considerably after Shinzō Abe became the Prime Minister of Japan in September 2006 , and a joint historical study conducted by China and Japan released a report in 2010 which pointed toward a new consensus on the issue of Japanese war crimes . The Senkaku Islands dispute also resulted in a number of hostile encounters in the East China Sea , heated rhetoric , and riots in the People 's Republic of China ( PRC )
Japanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes
China–Japan relations