Beijing ( CNN ) -- Chinese state media frequently treats Japan 's atrocities of the past like breaking news of today . But lately , the steady flow of war history-related news has become a flood . Amid fast-deteriorating Sino-Japanese relations , China 's State Archives Administration recently re-opened case files from a Chinese military tribunal in 1956 and launched a dedicated website to publish summaries of confessions by 45 convicted Japanese war criminals . Among the horrifying accounts posted online by Chinese authorities are confessions of raping countless women , burying people alive and performing human vivisections in China -- all handwritten by captured Japanese army officers after World War II and long sealed in the state archives in Beijing . The Chinese government 's target is clear . `` Since the Abe cabinet came into power in Japan , '' begins the online introduction to the confessions , referring to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe . `` It has openly confused right and wrong to mislead the public , in an attempt to whitewash the history of external aggression and colonialism . '' Tense seas . China and Japan have a dark history of conflict , including the nine-year Second Sino-Japanese War during which the contentious Nanjing Massacre took place from December 13 , 1937 to March 1 , 1938 . Japanese soldiers committed mass murders and forced Chinese and Korean women into sexual slavery during the occupation of Nanjing . But it was a more recent flare-up , say analysts , which brought the historic grievances back out into the open . Relations between China and Japan became strained in 2012 when Japan claimed islands in the East China Sea . China then declared in November 2013 an Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea , imposing air traffic restrictions over the disputed area . China 's moves have made Japan and other nations in South East Asia nervous over it 's expanding military and more assertive foreign policy , accusing China of trying to change the status quo . A right turn . In December , Abe further stoked tensions by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine where Japanese soldiers are honored -- including wartime leaders convicted as class-A war criminals . Abe became the first sitting prime minister to make the provocative visit since Junichiro Koizumi went in 2006 . Six months later , Abe declared a more liberal interpretation of Japan 's post-war pacifist constitution , essentially lifting a decades-long ban that prevented its military from fighting abroad . The following month , China released the Japanese wartime confessions online . Beijing also marked the anniversary of the Second Sino-Japanese War with an elaborate commemoration ceremony at Lugou Bridge , the site of the first showdown . `` China is responding to Prime Minister Abe 's attempts to rehabilitate the discredited wartime past . It 's trying to underscore the fact that Japan suffers from selective amnesia , '' says Jeff Kingston , an expert in Asian regional tensions and a professor at Temple University , Japan Campus . Global strategy . For long-time China watchers , this back-and-forth may be escalating at an alarming rate , but it is nothing new . `` Since the early 1990s , the communist party has been trying to stoke anti-Japanese patriotism among the Chinese people mostly because they wanted to regain some of the legitimacy they lost in the Tiananmen Square massacre , '' says Kingston , referring to the bloody military crackdown on Chinese student demonstrators in 1989 . For China 's president , the nationalism stoked by anti-Japanese sentiment , could become a powerful tool . `` Nationalism is a very potent force in China right now . Xi is strengthening nationalistic sentiment to unify the country behind him and reinforce his own position as leader , '' says Frank Ching , a political commentator . Beyond fomenting patriotism at home , China is also reminding its international partners that Japan has n't come clean about its past . Kingston explains that Japan 's imperialist history `` is Abe 's Achilles ' heel . '' By highlighting Abe 's right-wing inclinations , China can drive a wedge between the U.S. and Japan , while pulling South Korea -- another nation that suffers wartime scars inflicted by Japan -- closer . China appears to be using it 's propaganda push to isolate Japan from its allies . Resolution . But China 's heavy-handed propaganda may backfire in the end because foreign governments may see it in a more cynical light . `` If they press their case more quietly , it would be more effective , '' says Kingston . It may also lead the nations further away from resolution . `` These battles over history undermine trust and limit the room for diplomacy . It 's very difficult for both sides to find a face-saving way to climb down , '' says Kingston . Abe has repeatedly called for face-to-face talks with his Chinese counterpart , President Xi Jinping . `` The door for dialogue is always open on my side , and I hope China has the same attitude , '' the Japanese leader said . But analysts are not hopeful for talks , as both nations wait for the other to make the first move . `` The Chinese side has made it clear that they will not talk to Abe unless he takes action to show that his attitude has changed , but I do n't see Abe doing that in the absence of any commitment from China for a meeting first , '' says Ching . All eyes are now on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit coming up in November during which Abe has invited Xi to a meeting on the sidelines . The two leaders have never met since both came to power in 2012 .
Sino-Japanese relations fast deteriorating amid tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea . Analysts say China and Japan are engaged in a war of propaganda and rhetoric . Jeff Kingston : `` These battles over history undermine trust and limit the room for diplomacy ''