DHAKA: More than half of Chinese people think their country could go to war with Japan in the future after two years of intense diplomatic squabbles.

A new poll revealed on Wednesday, reports The Straits Times.

A survey conducted in both nations found that 53.4 percent of Chinese envisage a future conflict, with more than a fifth of those saying it would happen ‘within a few years’, while 29 percent of Japanese can see military confrontation.

The findings come ahead of the second anniversary on Thursday of Japan’s nationalisation of disputed islands in the East China Sea that have formed the focus of tensions between the Asian giants.

Underlining the lingering row over the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands, four Chinese coast guard vessels sailed into their territorial waters on Wednesday morning.

China regards them as its territory and calls them the Diaoyu Islands.

The survey was conducted by Japanese non-governmental organisation Genron and the China Daily, a Chinese state-run newspaper, in July and August.

It questioned 1,000 Japanese aged 18 or older and 1,539 Chinese of the same age range in five cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenyang and Xian.

BDST: 1303 HRS, SEP 10, 2014