Southern Chinese city Nanjing said it will suspend official exchanges with Japanese city Nagoya following its mayor's denial of the Nanjing Massacre, a spokesman of the foreign affairs office of the Nanjing municipal government said Tuesday night.

Nagoya Mayor Kawamura Takashi said the Nanjing Massacre "probably never happened" on Monday while meeting with a delegation from Nanjing.

The spokesman said Takashi Kawamura's remarks distorted historical facts and "seriously offend the Nanjing people."

The Nanjing Massacre occurred in December 1937 when Japanese troops occupied the then capital of China. More than 300,000 Chinese were believed murdered and thousands of women raped.

Nanjing and Nagoya established friendly ties in 1978.

(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2012)