Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, attends a press conference on China's foreign policy and external relations on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2026. (Xinhua/Cao Yiming)

A China that has grown strong and its 1.4 billion people will never allow anyone to justify colonialism or reverse the verdict on aggression ever again,Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a press conference on Sunday on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress, responding a question regarding China's relations with Japan. 

Future of China-Japan relations hinges on Japan's choice, the Chinese Foreign Minister remarked when responding a question raised by a Japan's Kyodo News Agency reporter on Sunday. The question mentioned that in last November, China had lodged a strong protest against Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks on Taiwan. At present, China-Japan relations face challenges, and cooperation in various areas has also been affected. 

The Kyodo reporter also claimed that since the Japanese government claimed that it always keeps the window for dialogue open since Takaichi won the election in February and then inquired what expectations the China has for the development of China-Japan relations.

Future of China-Japan relations hinges on Japan's choice, Wang said. 

Last year marked the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. In this special year, what Japan ought to have done was to deeply reflect on the wrong path it once took - including its record of aggression and colonization in Taiwan. Yet, Japan's current leader has publicly claimed that a "Taiwan contingency" could constitute a so-called "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, thereby justifying the exercise of so-called collective self-defense rights. As everyone knows, the exercise of self-defense rights presupposes an armed attack on one's own country, Wang said. 

Wang continued with a series of questions, saying that "let me ask: Taiwan affairs are China's internal affairs - by what right does Japan interfere? If something happens in China's Taiwan region, by what authority can Japan exercise self-defense rights? Does the so-called collective self-defense right mean hollowing out Japan's pacifist constitution, which renounces the right to wage war? When we recall that Japanese militarism once used the pretext of a 'situation threatening survival' to launch invasion abroad, it cannot but arouse high vigilance and deep concern among the Chinese people and the peoples of Asia: Where is Japan heading?"

This year is yet another 80th anniversary - the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Tokyo trials. Eighty years ago, judges from 11 countries, after two and a half years of proceedings, used a mountain of irrefutable evidence to expose the heinous crimes of Japanese militarism. The Tokyo trials ruled on human conscience and delivered historical justice, Wang said, adding that today, 80 years later, history has once again given Japan an opportunity for sincere self-reflection. Taking history as a mirror, one can understand the rise and fall of nations; forgetting the past means betraying the future, he said. 

Wang urged that broad masses of the Japanese people will keep their eyes open and not allow anyone today to overreach and repeat past mistakes. 

A China that has grown strong and its 1.4 billion people will never allow anyone to justify colonialism or reverse the verdict on aggression ever again, Wang warned.

Global Times