BEIJING - Chinese officials lashed out on Tuesday at Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara for his comments on Beijing's earlier reaction to the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands.

"We feel deeply shocked that a foreign minister of a country could make such remarks," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu in a regular news briefing.

Ma's comments came after Maehara said in parliament on Monday that China's countermeasures in September following Japan's illegal detention of a Chinese trawler captain near the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea were "hysterical".

"To improve and develop China-Japan relations is in the fundamental interest of both countries," Ma added.

"But the seriousness of the remarks made recently by certain officials at the Japanese Foreign Ministry obviously run in the opposite direction," he said.

Beijing and Tokyo are experiencing their bitterest relations in recent years, and diplomats from both sides are working to patch up ties.

To this end, Satsuki Eda, a close aide to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, is currently in China on a four-day trip as president of a youth-exchange delegation.

Eda is also the supreme adviser to the Japanese ruling Democratic Party, and has been elected four times as a legislator.

Ma on Tuesday welcomed Eda and his 1,000-strong youth group, saying China is willing to work together with Japan to continue friendly exchanges between the two peoples - especially among younger people.

They can, he said, "enhance mutual understanding to lay a good social foundation for the healthy development of bilateral ties".

Wang Ping, a researcher on Japan studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said that the Japanese nationalistic sentiments have been agitated by the misleading and irresponsible behavior of the Japanese government.

"By contrast, the Chinese government has remained prudent and called on its people to express their patriotism in a rational way," said Wang.