IF Prime Minister Tony Abbott thought his summit with Japanese leader Shinzo Abe would pass unnoticed in Beijing then he had better think again.

The Xinhua news agency, the state-run press agency of the People’s Republic of China, has launched a scathing attack on Mr Abbott accusing him of crossing the “moral bottom line” with his overtures to Mr Abe.

It described Mr Abbott as “appalling and insensible” for showing such admiration for Japan’s wartime aggression.

More than 20 million Chinese perished at the hands of Japanese troops in the lead up to and during the war.

Xinhua’s Canberra correspondent quoted Mr Abbott’s speech to a special joint sitting of Parliament.

“We admired the skill and the sense of honour that they brought to their task although we disagreed with what they did. Perhaps we grasped, even then, that with a change of heart the fiercest of opponents could be the best of friends,” the prime minister said.

The correspondent said that Mr Abbott “probably wasn’t aware that the Japanese troops possessed other “skills”, skills to loot, to rape, to torture and to kill”.

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“All these had been committed under the name of ‘honour’ almost 70 years ago,” Xinhua said.

“By making such a comment, Abbott showed how insensible he is towards people in China and other countries who had suffered greatly as a result of the ‘advanced’ war skills of Japanese troops and their sense of honour during their aggression.

“It also makes people wonder how far Australia under his leadership would go to support Japan.”

The highly critical comments must have been sanctioned by the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party leadership.

Xinhua also attacked Abe’s plan to alter the nation’s pacifist constitution and Mr Abbott’s support for the move.

“While Japan has earned the reputation of a good international citizen, how much does it owe to its pacifist constitution, of which Abe and his cabinet are trying to change by reinterpreting its key article,” the agency said.

“Abbott, under fire for his unpopular budget, must have felt attached to Abe, who is also trying to push forward structural reforms in Japan.”

Xinhua also warned that personal favours should never be put ahead of national interests.

“Nor should it go under a moral bottom line.”

The attack by Xinhua is unprecedented from a nation that rarely ventures publicly into the internal affairs of another country.

Such is the level of feeling in Beijing against Japan that it approved a ferocious written attack that would never be tolerated inside China itself.