A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on Thursday urged Japan to make substantial efforts to improve bilateral ties rather than chanting empty slogans.

Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Japan caused the current difficult situation in bilateral relations, "so the Japanese side should correct their mistakes and make substantial efforts to get rid of the obstacles in the way of the development of bilateral relationship."

Relations between China and Japan soured following the Japanese government's unilateral move to "nationalize" part of the Diaoyu Islands last September.

Recently, the Japanese side has repeatedly called for a dialogue with China soon without any conditions.

"It will not help to solve the problem with only empty slogans calling for a dialogue," said the spokeswoman.

Hua said China is firm in its stance on safeguarding the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands. Meanwhile, it proposes resolving the problem via dialogue.

The problem is that the Japanese side keeps acting provocatively while chanting empty slogans "without any sincerity for dialogue at all," Hua said.

"The Japanese side should rectify their attitude and be as good as their words to create a necessary environment for dialogue between the two sides," she said.

Hua said a high-level dialogue can come only after adequate preparations, but the Japanese side has consistently evaded the Diaoyu Islands issue, unwilling to recognize the dispute itself or to conduct a serious dialogue about the problem.

The Japanese side should face history and facts and be sincere about resolving the problem through dialogue.

Hua said China-Japan strategic and mutually-beneficial relations are based on the principles established in the four political documents signed between the two countries.

The documents include the China-Japan Joint Statement inked in 1972, the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1978, the China-Japan Joint Declaration of 1998 and a joint statement on advancing strategic and mutually-beneficial relations in a comprehensive way that was signed in 2008.

To advance the China-Japan relationship in a healthy and stable way, she said, the two sides should take history as a mirror and appropriately handle problems affecting bilateral ties.