A senior Chinese official on Monday criticized Japan for attempting to "cover up" its history of aggression as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is preparing for a speech marking the 70th anniversary of Tokyo's surrender in World War II.

Lu Xinhua, a spokesman for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory body under China's ruling Communist Party, made the remarks ahead of key political meetings this week.

Abe is preparing for the speech, which is expected to be announced on the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's surrender and be closely watched by Japan's neighbors amid speculation that Tokyo might tone down its past apologies to wartime atrocities.

"Generally speaking, most political figures, including the leader of the current (Japanese) government, have never expressed deep remorse or sincerely apologized like the German leaders over the Nazi Holocaust of Jewish people," Lu told a press conference.

"On the contrary, various attempts have been made to cover up the true things of history in textbooks, on Yasukuni Shrine, comfort women, Nanjing Massacre and other issues," Lu said. "We urge the leader of the current Japanese government to deeply reflect upon its wartime past."

Abe has angered both South Korea and China by making a controversial visit to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors 14 Class A Japanese criminals convicted by the Allies in the trials that followed the war, in December 2013. Abe's cabinet had also suggested that it could review a landmark 1993 apology for the Japanese Imperial Army's sexual slavery of women during the war.

According to historians, up to 200,000 women, mostly Korean, were coerced into sexual servitude at front-line Japanese brothels during the war when the Korean Peninsula was a Japanese colony.

Those sex slaves were euphemistically described by the Japanese military as "comfort women." (Yonhap)