China's permanent representative to the United Nations Fu Cong (front C) speaks at a rare emergency weekend meeting on the Palestinian-Israeli issue held by the UN Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York, on Aug. 10, 2025.File photo: Xinhua

Chinese diplomats once again urged the Japanese side to retract erroneous remarks on Taiwan and warned of the risks of resurgence of militarism and fascism at the United Nations headquarters on Monday local time, as the Japanese side continues to reject acknowledging their wrongdoing, while attempting to mislead the international community through repeated evasive claims. 

Speaking at an open debate of the UN Security Council on leadership for peace, China's permanent representative to the UN Fu Cong said that at a time when the international community is reflecting on history and planning for the future, it is outrageous that Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has gone against the trend by claiming that the so-called survival-threatening situation for Japan is linked to Taiwan of China, and by implying and threatening that Japan would militarily intervene in the Taiwan question.

"This constitutes a blatant interference in China's internal affairs, openly contravenes the commitments made by Japan as a defeated state in World War II to China and the international community, directly challenges the victorious outcomes of World War II and the post-war international order, violates the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and poses serious risks to peace in Asia and globally," Fu said.

The lessons of World War II are still fresh. Eighty years ago, Japanese militarists expanded armaments under the pretext of a so-called survival-threatening situation and launched external aggression in the name of self-defense, bringing profound catastrophes to China, the wider Asia and the whole world, he said.

"Eighty years on, we must never allow the resurgence of militarism and fascism," Fu said. "China, once again, urges the Japanese side to retract these erroneous remarks, earnestly reflect upon and repent the wrongdoings, and refrain from continuing down the wrong path."

Fu said Japan's return of Taiwan, which it had unlawfully seized, to China, constitutes an important component of the post-war international order.

"Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of China. This is an ironclad fact jointly affirmed in political and legal terms," he said.

Sun Lei, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, requested to make further statement at the end of the UN meeting in response to claims by Japan's Permanent Representative Yamazaki Kazuyuki, who had engaged in repeated evasive sophistry, dismissing Fu's comments as "groundless" while portraying Japan as a "peace-loving nation."

China once again urges Japan to reflect profoundly on the crimes it committed in the past, to honor its commitments to China and the international community through concrete actions, and to cease all attempts to gloss over its wrongdoing and get away with it, Sun said.

"Japan on one hand claims that it is peace-loving, while on the other hand has never conscientiously reflected on its war crimes. On the contrary, it has significantly revised its security policies, increased its defense budget for 13 consecutive years, revised the longstanding three principles on arms export, and is attempting to alter the Three Non-Nuclear Principles. How can this win the trust of the world?" Sun added.  

For a Japan like this, we cannot listen to what it says, but only watch what it does, Sun said.

Lü Chao, a professor at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that "Japan never thoroughly reflected on its militarist ideology after the war, with war criminals and militarists escaping proper punishment." 

The expert affirmed that China's actions in exposing and criticizing signs of a resurgence of Japanese militarism on the UN stage are entirely reasonable and justified, particularly in calling for global vigilance to "nip the revival of militarism in the bud."

"Against a context of Japan's repeated lies and lack of credibility, 'watch what it does' is a severe warning," he said. "If Japan violates the UN Charter, revives militarism, or takes further steps on Taiwan, China will resolutely strike back."