China has released a new video game inviting players to shoot Japanese war criminals – and Beijing is on the verge of establishing two new holidays, one to mark Japan's defeat in the second world war and another, to commemorate the Nanjing Massacre.  It all seems to be in response to a slew of Japanese officials making comments that seem to minimize Japan’s World War II atrocities.

The “Shoot the Devils” game premiered on the website of the Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper.  Players are invited to fire a handgun at one of 14 Japanese convicted as Class A war criminals after the war – the same 14 war criminals whose enshrinement at Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine war memorial constantly causes offense around Asia.

It comes as China’s top legislative body ratified two new national holidays:  3 September to mark Japan’s defeat in World War II, and 13 December to commemorate the victims of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, known as the Rape of Nanking.

China is matching the bizarre nationalist rhetoric coming from Tokyo.  People close to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have been openly claiming that some of Japan’s war crimes from the 1930s and 1940s never happened – history disagrees.  Abe even visited the loathed Yasukuni Shrine two months ago, complete with its 14 war criminals.

In 2013, trade volume between China and Japan dropped 5.1 percent from the year before.  That followed a 3.9 percent fall in 2012.  Both Chinese and Japanese officials blame the drop on geopolitical differences over the Senkaku Islands.  Both countries are doing a lot less investing in each other as well.  The two Asian neighbors are de-linking their marketplaces bit by bit, while China is ascending and Japan has an aging population and shrinking economy. 

The background to all this is the dispute over the Senkaku Islands near Okinawa.  They’ve been in Japanese control since 1895, but China since 1971 has cited ancient documents in claiming they belong to Beijing.  Not coincidentally, 1971 is the same year that explorers discovered significant hydrocarbon resources (oil and gas, baby) below the sea around them.