China urges Japan not to interfere with 'comfort women' campaign

China urged Japan not to interfere with a joint campaign to get "comfort women" documents listed on the UNESCO's Memory of the World Register on Tuesday.

More than 10 civil groups from countries including China and the Republic of Korea jointly filed an application to have documents related to "comfort women" listed on the Memory of the World Register.

Such efforts will "help people around the world understand fully the cruelty of aggressive war, bear in mind history, cherish peace and safeguard humans' dignity," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei in a daily news conference on Tuesday.

Hong urged Japan to deal correctly with the application and "not smear or interfere with it" after Kyodo News Agency reported on Monday that the Japanese government will "do all it can" to stop the documents from getting into the register.

He also urged Japan to, "effectively fulfill promises it made about historical issues, and take concrete measures to win the trust from the international community and its Asian neighbors."

In 2015, the Nanjing Massacre documents submitted by China were included into the UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. After occupying the city in 1937, Japanese troops committed atrocities in Nanjing including murdering civilians.