China's permanent representative to the United Nations Fu Cong delivers speech on February 18, 2025 at a meeting of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization. Photo: screenshot from UN website

No matter what pretext Japan uses to exercise "collective self-defense" to intervene in the Taiwan question, it would constitute aggression against China, and China will resolutely respond, China's permanent representative to the United Nations Fu Cong said on Wednesday local time. 

He made the remarks at a meeting of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization, according to a release from China's Permanent Mission to the UN.

Fu said that what deserves serious vigilance is that the Japanese leader has recently gone against the tide of history by openly linking China's Taiwan region with what they term a "situation threatening Japan's survival," and by concocting scenarios for response under the Japan-US alliance, in a bid to use the so-called "right of collective self-defense" as a pretext for forcibly intervening in the Taiwan question.

Such arguments are legally untenable. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and how to resolve the Taiwan question is entirely China's internal affair. No country has the right to interfere, still less to use force under the guise of so-called"self-defense," Fu said.

These arguments repudiate the international obligations Japan must shoulder as a defeated country in World War II and contravene the provisions of the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. They also run counter to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, including respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states and non-interference in internal affairs, and constitute a grave challenge to the post-war international order, Fu said.

Such arguments should be met with high vigilance and firm opposition by all peace-loving countries. No matter what pretext Japan uses to exercise "collective self-defense" to intervene in the Taiwan question, it would constitute aggression against China, and China will resolutely respond, said Fu. 

Global Times