China's Foreign Ministry has called on the international community to urge Japan to abide by its Three Non-Nuclear Principles and fulfil its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, after Japan's defence chief said discussions on possessing nuclear weapons and nuclear submarines should be held "without taboo."
Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the possession of nuclear weapons is not an issue Japan can choose to "allow discussion" on, noting that as a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the NPT, Japan has a bounden duty under international law not to receive, manufacture, acquire or transfer nuclear weapons.
Guo said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reiterated Japan's commitment to the three non-nuclear principles in February, and Japan's representative reaffirmed at this year's NPT Review Conference that the principles would not be changed. He described the defence chief's remark as a blatant provocation and a serious violation of the NPT and the postwar international order.
Guo said Japan has been accelerating remilitarisation in recent years and attempting to revise the three non-nuclear principles by strengthening so-called "extended deterrence," seeking nuclear weapon deployment in Japan and progressively easing nuclear restrictions.
Noting this year marks 80 years since the opening of the Tokyo Trials, Guo said history has not and will not forget the calamities brought by Japanese militarism, and urged the international community to call on Japan to strictly observe the principles and abandon its remilitarisation and nuclear attempts.
Reuters
