Illustration: Liu Rui /GT

Some 34 groups on the Taiwan island jointly issued a protest statement on Monday to sternly protest the Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous and provocative remarks regarding the Taiwan question, declaring that the people in Taiwan refuse to become sacrifices to Japanese militarism. 

These groups, including the Labor Party of Taiwan and the Cross-Straits Peace and Development Forum, said in the protest statement that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi openly declared at the Diet meeting that the Taiwan question could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, to justify Japan's exercise of the right of collective self-defense and implied military intervention in the Taiwan Straits.

Takaichi's use of the so-called "Taiwan emergency" to push for a strategic upgrade is not for Taiwan's benefit, but to legitimize the militarism expansion of Japanese right-wing groups. By elevating the Taiwan question into a matter of "survival-threatening situation" for Japan in her capacity as prime minister, Takaichi is effectively using state power to justify military action, which is a blatant provocation against existing China-Japan agreements and the post-war order, according to the statement. 

This brazen militaristic rhetoric openly interferes with China's internal affairs and gambles with the safety and lives of the people in Taiwan, gravely endangering peace across the Taiwan Straits and the region, and undermining post-war East Asian order, said the statement. 

"We express our strongest protest against this, and the people in Taiwan refuse to be sacrificed for Japanese militarism and military adventurism," the statement said. 

In the protest statement, the 34 groups lodged a stern protest and put forward four major demands, which include that Takaichi must immediately retract her wrong remarks on Taiwan question and issue a public apology to the people in Taiwan, the people in Ryukyu, and the countries of the region. 

They urge that the Japanese government must stop any military escalation in the the name of the Taiwan Straits and cease hyping up the so-called "Taiwan emergency."

These groups also demand that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities must not tolerate, echo, or cooperate with Japan's military ambitions and the DPP authorities must clearly state their rejection of Japanese military intervention and must not align with any external force pushing Taiwan toward war. 

Besides, the 34 groups urged the DPP authorities must promptly restore cross-Straits dialogue on the legal basis of the one-China principle and establish a peace framework that ensures the safety of the people in Taiwan. 

In addition, the protest statement also emphasized that Taiwan is not Japan's shield, nor America's outpost. What Taiwan needs is not the flames of war, but peace; not a proxy war, but a shared future across the Taiwan Straits.