DHAKA: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday commemorated the 77th anniversary of the official start of war with Japan, condemning those who "ignore the iron facts of history" in an oblique jab at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  

Xi and a cast of hundreds of soldiers and schoolchildren gathered for a ceremony on the edge of the capital to mark the Marco Polo Bridge incident, a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese troops on July 7, 1937 that served as a pretext for Tokyo's forces to seize Beijing and trigger the Sino-Japanese war.    

The event, carried live on state television, came amid a deluge of articles in China's state and Communist Party-controlled media linked to the anniversary and criticising Tokyo for historical revisionism and moves towards potential remilitarisation.  

The conflict, commonly known in China as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, led to the death of some 20 million Chinese, according to Beijing's estimates. It ended with Tokyo's World War II defeat in 1945, reports Straits Times. 

BDST: 1250 HRS, JUL 7, 2014