Relatives of more than 400 people missing after a cruise ship capsized on China's Yangtze river were hoping for a miracle Wednesday as authorities said they were racing against time to find any survivors.

State media said just 14 people have been rescued from the "Eastern Star" which overturned late Monday in a storm, leaving just a section of its hull protruding from the murky waters.

Air raid sirens sounded in the Chinese city of Nanjing Thursday, 75 years after Japanese soldiers embarked on mass killing and rape, with the Asian giants' ties riven over a territorial row.

The two countries -- the world's second- and third-largest economies -- have extensive trade and business links, but the weight of Japan's wartime atrocities still bears heavily on their relationship.