TOKYO: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in an interview published on Saturday, said Japan was ready to be more assertive towards

China as Beijing threatened to strike back if provoked.

A top retired Chinese diplomat said any move by Tokyo to contain China could amount to an attempt to conceal ulterior motives in the region and prove to be extremely dangerous. And the defence ministry warned Japan not to underestimate Chinas resolve to take whatever measures were needed to protect itself.

Abe, interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, said Japan should take the lead in guarding against what he said might bean attempt by China to use force to attain its diplomatic goals. He said he had realised at recent meetings with South East Asian leaders that the region sought leadership from Tokyo in terms of security amid Chinas more forthright diplomacy.

There are concerns that China is attempting to change the status quo by force, rather than by rule of law. But if China opts to take that path, then it wont be able to emerge peacefully, he told the newspaper.

So it shouldnt take that path and many nations expect Japan to strongly express that view. And they hope that as a result, China will take responsible action in the international community.

China took issue with a Japanese media report saying Abe had approved a policy for Japan to shoot down foreign drones that ignore warnings to leave its airspace.

Dont underestimate the Chinese armys resolute will and determination to protect Chinas territorial sovereignty, Defence Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said on the ministrys website. If Japan does resort to enforcement measures like shooting down aircraft, that is a serious provocation to us, an act of war.

We will undertake decisive action to strike back, with every consequence borne by the side that caused the trouble, Geng added.

Relations have deteriorated sharply in the past year, with the main sticking point being conflicting claims to uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, known in Japan as the Senkaku islands and in China as Diaoyu.

Ties have taken a further battering over visits by Japanese lawmakers this month to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo honouring both war dead and Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals. China is also at odds with several South East Asian states contesting its claims to large swathes of the South China Sea.

Former Chinese foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan, addressing a forum in Beijing, said that Japan hoped to enlist the United Nations and the international community to curb Chinas actions in the region, according to media reports.

Tang made no reference to Abes latest comments, but said any attempt to contain China either amounted to a distorted view of China or the rendering of an image of the Chinese menace to achieve an ulterior political goal.

I hope its the former, because if its the latter, not only is it futile, it is also extremely dangerous.

President Xi Jinping adopted a more conciliatory tone at a conference on diplomacy this week, saying good relations with neighbours were crucial to a stable foreign policy.