flashpoint, play up, team up

The falling out underscored how history remains a potential flashpoint in Japan’s ties with the nations that it once conquered. While such denials are common by Japanese conservatives like Mr. Kawamura, they are rarely raised in such a public manner, and directly to Chinese officials. But there is also a widely shared perception in Japan that China’s communist government plays up the massacre for its own propaganda purposes, with many serious historians dismissing the official Chinese claims of 300,000 dead as exaggerated.

James Hill for The New York Times

Massacre Shows Gangs’ Power in Russia

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

The murders of 12 people in a farm town has become a symbol of how criminal and corrupt bureaucrats often team up to rule rural Russia.

criminal and corrupt bureaucrats team up

fláshpòint[flásh・pòint]

[名][C][U]

1 （対立などが）爆発寸前の状態；一触即発の地帯.

2 《物理化学》引火点(flashing point).