Photo: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian

Chinese FM spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday that after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made erroneous remarks on the Taiwan Straits, a close aide again issued fallacious comments, repeatedly testing the bottom line of the international community and exposing Takaichi's long-standing misguided positions and the Japanese right wing's ambition to push re-militarization, sending an extremely dangerous signal.

These remarks were made in response to reports that nuclear weapon remarks by a senior official at the Japanese Prime Minister's Office have triggered strong backlash at home and abroad, and that Takaichi on Tuesday again raised discussions on revising three key security documents.

Lin said that it now appears the nuclear armament remarks by the senior official at the Japanese Prime Minister's Office are by no means an isolated incident. In recent years, Japan has loosened its self-imposed constraints on the right of collective self-defense, developed medium- and long-range offensive weapons, increased troop deployments, restructured its command system and expanded the operational scope of the Self-Defense Forces, seriously violating provisions of internationally legally binding documents such as the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, as well as its own Constitution. 

"Since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office just two months ago, Japan has further accelerated military expansion, brought forward by two years the goal of raising defense spending to 2 percent of GDP, further eased restrictions on arms exports, pushed ahead with revisions to the National Security Strategy and other major security documents, and discussed revising the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, while hinting at the introduction of nuclear-powered submarines," the spokesperson said.

"Such moves challenge the post-war international order, threaten regional peace and stability, and run counter to the interests of the Japanese people," Lin said, adding that China will work with all peace-loving countries to firmly prevent the revival of Japanese militarism.

Global Times