I would think that any sane nation would realize that genocide is wrong and genocidal activities should be acknowledged and active steps taken to prevent recurrence without having to waste time figuring out how to ask if people's will was violated by attempting to exterminate them. One using that sick logic, you could exterminate the Amish and say it's ok and there were no real victims of a crime since none of them raised a hand to resist. Similarly, trying to define of the government of the victims of genocide is worthy to get an acknowledgement or apology is also a warped request. Germany didn't ask the countries it abused to submit "Like Us vs. Not Like Us" questionnaires to see whether the dead people lived under rulership that qualified their deliberately inflicted deaths to be considered criminal or not.
Do you really think that using people in a conquered area for biological warfare experiments would be acknowledged and active steps taken to prevent recurrence by any sane nation without having to waste time figuring out how to ask questions about whether their government was worthy of getting an acknowledgement or apology?
Your arguments are nothing come down to nothing more than "If I don't like your government, then any other government can feel free to invade your country, slaughter your people, force your women into prostitution, use civilians in biological warfare experiments, and do anything else they feel like with complete impunity and can teach their schoolchildren lies to make them feel their country was justified for launching a war of aggression, thus laying the groundwork for future wars. I'll even let them get away with this against countries with governments I do like just to make sure they don't have to ever acknowledge what they did to you."
These "not like us means they are fair game for anyone" attitude has been acted on before. Australia and the US nearly wiped out their native populations, with the US even resorting to deliberately spreading smallpox as part of the program. The UK and many other European nations decided that those who lacked their "enlightened" governments needed to be colonized and "civilized" under the boot heels of their military forces.
So, which of these enlightened governments still thinks it is so superior to China, Korea, the Philippines, etc. that it feels Japan not doing what Germany did is the right choice? Or is it that only white majority countries are entitled to apologies?
As for the article, I think the people desperately trying to make a new Cold War with China replacing the USSR are wrong in their outlook. First, they've missed the fact that Russia has been trying its best to bring its former Soviet Republics back into its control. Second, and much more obvious to anyone who doesn't want to explain all things new as simple repeats of old things, despite some government similarities, China is not the Soviet Union any more than the USA is a reincarnation of ancient Athens. China is trying to expand its influence via peaceful trade, not by exporting revolution. China doesn't send its troops off to remote places to help "liberate" other countries (which the Soviets sometimes did and America still actively does). China doesn't have a massive Navy designed to rule multiple oceans and has only a small number of the nuclear weapons (while both Russia and the USA each still have enough to single-handedly end civilization). Sadly, some people are determine to ram China into a Soviet shaped hole in their minds instead of taking an unbiased look and realizing that China is quite different from the Soviets and from the USA.
Perhaps these people should consider that continuously spewing hate at China might actually be one of the main reasons why China has finally taken a more aggressive stance. In school, sometimes the victim of a hateful bully needs to smack the aggressor firmly to finally end the abuse. Approaching China with the same basic politeness afforded to 190+ other nations (many with very questionable governments and rights policies) would go a long way towards allowing improvements in relations.