(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) ijing April 19 - China has refuted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's criticism claiming that Beijing has tried to "change the status quo" in maritime disputes. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing that Abe was trying to "divert attention and confuse the public" and that China has repeatedly expressed its position on the East China Sea and South China Sea. "The historic facts and the rights and wrongs in the disputes on the East China Sea and South China Sea are crystal clear" said Hua. "It is not China who is changing the status quo." "China's will and determination of safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity is unswerving" she said. According to reports Abe said on Thursday at a forum in Tokyo that China "is challenging the status quo with force in the East China Sea and South China Sea" referring to Beijing's territorial rows with Japan and other Southeast Asian countries. He added that "it is necessary for not only Japan but many other countries to prompt China to grow peacefully as a responsible country." Hua said China has taken regional peace and security into consideration and kept restraint and remained committed to solve disputes via dialogue and consultation. "As we all can see the attempt of the Japanese leader's mistaken remarks is very clear: on one hand to divert attention and confuse the public to cover up its act of denying history; on the other hand to woo a third party in the hope of containing China" she said. "The attempt is futile. It will not succeed and will never frighten China" said Hua. The Japanese leader has always refused to face up to and reflect upon the history of Japanese military aggression toward China and the crimes the Japanese militarists committed and refused to deal with issues of history properly she said.
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