China dispels Hatoyama's Nanjing trip speculation

China yesterday dispelled speculation that Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama would later in the year visit Nanjing, the metropolis where the Japanese army had killed nearly 300,000 Chinese in 1937.

High-level bilateral visits between the Asian neighbors, however, would go on as usual, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a routine press briefing in Beijing yesterday.

"It is very important that high-ranking officials on both sides keep exchanging visits, but as far as I know, this report (of Hatoyama visiting Nanjing) is baseless," Jiang said.