BEIJING -- Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura should kneel and apologize to the Chinese people for the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, a spokesperson said Tuesday.

The comment came after Kawamura downplayed the severity of APA, a Japanese hotel chain, placing in its rooms a book denying the Nanjing Massacre and the forced recruitment of comfort women.

Kawamura said the Japanese should go to Nanjing to kneel down and apologize if Japanese troops really slaughtered 300,000 Nanjing citizens. But he doubted the Nanjing Massacre ever took place.

China is willing to have friendly exchanges with Japan but will never tolerate brazen distortions of history that hurt the Chinese, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing. "Whoever acts recklessly will pay the price," Hua said.

"As for the comments by the mayor, I want to remind him that the Nanjing Massacre is a historical fact recognized by the international community. The mayor should deliver on what he said," the spokesperson added.

Also on Tuesday, China's National Tourism Administration released a call to action -- asking Chinese tourism agencies and websites to stop promoting or using the APA. The tourism authority also called on Chinese tourists to boycott these hotels.

More than 600,000 people lived in Nanjing before the Japanese slaughtered around 300,000 soldiers and civilians in December 1937, but the book by Seiji Fuji, the pen name of the APA CEO, claims that there were only 200,000 people in the city at the time.