Few things make Keiji Ide, minister in charge of press relations at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, happier than a chance to show Chinese news clippings that quote him on sensitive issues of Sino-Japanese politics or history.
One clip, from the April 18 issue of China Newsweek magazine, played Ide's comments on Japan's contentious history textbooks across the bottom of two pages.
Another gem appeared Feb. 23 in the Beijing News on a page about China's opposition to what it perceived as a U.S.-Japanese pact to protect self-ruled Taiwan, which China sees as its territory.
Japan and the United States agreed in February to reinforce their alliance under a new set of common security objectives to deal with "unpredictability and uncertainty" in the Asia-Pacific region amid China's rising military power, tension across the Taiwan Strait and North Korea's nuclear threat.