A senior official said on Friday that China firmly adheres to the path of peaceful development, calling on both China and Japan to cherish the good momentum in bilateral ties in the new era.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said China has always firmly defended world peace and pursues independent and peaceful foreign policy, and will continue to contribute to the world peace and stability in the new era.

Huang made the remarks at a memorial held in Nanjing to remember those massacred in the ancient city in 1937 by invading Japanese troops. Some 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers were killed over six weeks after the Japanese army captured the city in December that year.