China warns Australia on defence ties with Japan

China urged Australia on Wednesday to take into account the feelings of Asian countries as Sydney contemplates buying a fleet of submarines from Japan in a deal worth as much as $29 billion.

In some of his strongest remarks on the possible deal, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told reporters that Australia should consider the context of Japan’s role in the Second World War in developing its military relationship with Tokyo.

Mr Wang made the remarks to journalists during a joint briefing with visiting Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop.

“We hope that in military cooperation with Japan, Australia will take into full account this historical context and take into consideration also the feelings of Asian countries because of that history,” Mr Wang said.

“We hope that Australia will take concrete actions to support the peaceful development of Japan and Japan’s efforts to uphold its pacifist Constitution and not the opposite.”

Australia will pick the design for a new fleet of submarines in 2016. Japan, which is offering a variant of its 4,000-tonne Soryu submarine, is up against rival bids from Germany and France.

Washington is encouraging closer security cooperation between Japan and Australia as it looks to its Pacific allies to shoulder a bigger security role.