World 'watching' Japan's next move

China's top diplomat Wang Yi said on Thursday that the world is watching Japan's reactions as the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II nears.

The foreign minister made the comment to Chinese reporters after a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of a series of meetings on East Asia cooperation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

"Of course we are waiting to see (Japan's next moves)," CCTV quoted Wang as saying.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his cabinet are trying to pass new security bills through Japan's upper house, triggering nationwide protests as observers said the bills are believed to betray the spirit of its pacifist Constitution.

The decline of the Abe cabinet's approval rating, according to polls by Nikkei, from a peak of 76 percent last April to 48 percent is partly a result of the public opposition to the new security bills.

Wang, a former Chinese ambassador to Japan, said that the recent changes in Japan's military and defense policies "naturally lead to concerns of many countries, especially neighboring countries".

"We hope that Japan could continue taking the path of peaceful development, which they have stuck to," Wang said.

Lyu Yaodong, an expert on Japanese foreign policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that "Japan has not resolved its history issue", and that it is still attempting to beautify or deny its history of aggression.

Abe's statement on the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII has been a key issue this month, especially for the people in China and on the Korea Peninsula who were brutalized by the Japanese Imperial Army during the war.