Don't read too much into shortened name

Following a regulation on the abbreviated names of hospitals launched by China's National Health and Family Planning Commission, the Beijing-based China-Japan Friendship Hospital is now to be called the China-Japan Hospital, except on official documents or on occasions that require its full official name be used.

Despite the fact that its full name remains unchanged, the guideline's dropping of the word "friendship", has provoked a host of negative online comments from both Chinese and Japanese netizens.

For some of the latter, the shortened name is a signal that Beijing is inclined to "defriend" Tokyo, and they say "friendship" should not have been used in the name of the hospital in the first place. Many Chinese also expressed their concern about the name-changing administrative order.