Japan is told its attempt to smear 'will fail'

Japan will suffer "a credibility issue" if it seeks to improve ties with China while at the same attacking China's image, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in Beijing on Tuesday.

It was reported recently that the Japanese embassy in London was paying the think tank the Henry Jackson Society 10,000 pounds ($12,300) a month to run an image-tarnishing propaganda campaign and label China as a threat. The story first appeared in the Sunday Times on Jan 29.

Beijing has noted the report but it says it had not seen any clarifications from Tokyo, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news conference on Tuesday.

Lu said: "If what the report says is true, I would like to say this (the Japanese attempt) will be of no avail."

The Japanese embassy in the UK has chosen to stay silent in the wake of the Sunday Times report.

The newspaper claimed Japan had been paying 10,000 pounds a month to the Henry Jackson Society to encourage politicians including former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind and journalists to voice opposition to China's foreign policy.

It was claimed that the HJS, which is run by Alan Mendoza, an unsuccessful Tory candidate at the 2015 general election, is being paid by the embassy to run the campaign.

The Sunday Times said the deal with the Japanese embassy in London was made in response to growing cooperation between Britain and China.

Last weekend, Malcolm Rifkind acknowledged that the HJS had approached him to put his name to an article published by the Daily Telegraph last August, expressing concerns about China's role in Britain's Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant.

The HJS said in a statement, that "the Henry Jackson Society had approached Sir Malcolm Rifkind who generously agreed to work with us in the drafting of this article which appeared under his name".

Rifkind claimed he was not made aware of the HJS's financial relationship with the Japanese embassy, adding that the HJS "ought to have informed me of that relationship when they asked me to support the article they provided. It would have been preferable if they had".

Lu said Beijing "has no interests in an in-depth probe" as ties between China and Britain are in good shape.