BEIJING — In a harsh statement, China on Sunday accused Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of presenting a distorted picture about its dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea, and it expressed “resolute opposition” to her position.

The Foreign Ministry said Mrs. Clinton “ignores the facts and confuses right and wrong” in a short description she gave of the situation at a news conference in Washington on Friday.

The unusual objection, released as Mrs. Clinton prepares to step down as secretary of state, appears to have been prompted by a new phrase used by Mrs. Clinton in what was an otherwise standard reference to the escalating feud between China and Japan.

With Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan standing beside her, Mrs. Clinton said that the Obama administration opposed “any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration” of the islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.