BEIJING: Japan should retract its erroneous remarks on Taiwan if it wants to develop the strategic relationship of mutual benefit with China, said Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, on Friday.
Mao made the comments in response to questions over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks earlier in the day that the Japanese side’s willingness to develop the strategic relationship of mutual benefit with China remains unchanged.
Takaichi’s blatant and erroneous remarks on Taiwan, which imply the possibility of Japan’s armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait, have triggered outrage and condemnation from the Chinese people and eroded the political foundation of China-Japan relations, Mao said. “China has made clear its firm opposition.”
“If it truly wants to develop the China-Japan strategic relationship of mutual benefit and build constructive and stable bilateral ties fit for the new era, Japan should abide by the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan and the political commitments it has made, immediately retract the recent erroneous remarks, and take practical steps to honor its commitments to China,” said Mao.
If Japan follows old path of militarism, it will end in failure, says Chinese spokesperson
If Japan wants to follow the old path of militarism, abandon its commitment to peaceful development and undermine the post-war international order, it will ultimately end in failure, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Friday.
Responding to relevant queries, Mao told a regular news briefing that following the WWII victory, international treaties and instruments such as the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender clearly stated Japan’s obligations as a defeated country, requiring Japan to be “completely disarmed” and not to maintain such industries as “would enable her to re-arm for war.”
However, in recent years, Japan has kept easing the restrictions and seeking military buildup, said Mao. It has increased its defense budget for 13 consecutive years, and adopted the new security laws to remove the ban on exercising the right to collective self-defense, she added.
Japan has also replaced the Three Principles on Arms Exports with the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology to ease restrictions on arms exports and even has started exporting deadly weapons, Mao said.
While claiming it hopes to build a world without nuclear weapons, Japan is actually strengthening cooperation on extended deterrence, and even seeking to revise its three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons to open the door for enabling nuclear sharing arrangements, she said.
All these moves show that Japan is breaking free from the exclusively defense-oriented principle and “re-arming” itself at pace, said Mao. “People cannot help but ask, what exactly is Japan seeking to achieve?”
If Japan seeks to go back to the path of militarism, violate its commitment to peaceful development and disrupt post-war international order, the Chinese people will not allow it, and the international community will not allow it, she said. “Such attempt will only end in failure.”
