BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- In a dangerous policy shift, the Japanese government officially eased its arms export rules on Tuesday, allowing the sale of lethal weapons. Japan's growing military buildup is threatening the postwar peace order.
In recent years, Japan has been drastically readjusting its security policy, increasing defense spending, developing offensive weapons, expanding military deployments and relaxing restrictions on arms exports.
These endeavors have seriously violated the instruments with legal effect under international law, such as the Potsdam Proclamation and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, which constitute the post-WWII international order. The Proclamation states that Japanese militarism must be eliminated, and it requires Japan to be completely disarmed and not to maintain industries that would enable it to re-arm for war.
However, as a defeated country, Japan has never truly reckoned with its militarism. Historical facts have been glossed over and whitewashed in textbooks. Japanese right-wing forces have been seeking to break free from the country's pacifist constitution and pursue the status of a "military power."
Expanding arms exports will provide a huge boost to Japan's arms industry. Alarmingly, since Sanae Takaichi took office as prime minister, Japan has stepped up its remilitarization and made repeated provocations aimed at China, which should be viewed as strong signals of a dangerous militarist revival in Japan.
Under the cover of so-called defense and counterstrike needs, Japan has been strengthening the deployment of a series of offensive weapons and equipment, including missiles, in regions close to China. Such deployments amount to a more offensive, expansionist and dangerous defense policy, which goes far beyond the scope of self-defense and Japan's "exclusively defense-oriented" policy.
Last Friday, Japan sent a Self-Defense Force vessel into the Taiwan Strait in a deliberate provocation. This followed Takaichi's earlier erroneous remarks concerning China's Taiwan on Nov. 7 last year, which implied the possibility of Japan's armed intervention in the Strait. These acts have fully exposed the reckless attempts of certain Japanese politicians to undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, while also damaging the political foundation of China-Japan relations and threatening China's sovereignty and security.
In a related development, Takaichi on Tuesday sent a ritual offering to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine where Class-A Japanese war criminals are honored. Japanese officials and politicians have repeatedly visited the shrine or made ritual offerings. Japan's negative actions on this issue essentially constitute an attempt to evade its own historical responsibility, a desecration of historical justice, a provocation against countries that suffered from its aggression, and a challenge to the outcomes of the victory in World War II. Japan's wars of aggression brought untold suffering to China and other countries.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the Tokyo Trials, which laid bare the terrible crimes of Japanese militarists and brought them to justice. Yet Japan's major policy changes in the military and security fields serve as powerful proof that militarism remains on the Japanese agenda. Japan's accelerating remilitarization is a ticking time bomb threatening world peace and security, which requires heightened vigilance from the international community.
Japan must make a clear choice: either allowing the toxic legacy of militarism to continue growing and spreading, or undertaking a genuine and profound reckoning with its past crimes. If Japan continues down its perilous path of militarist revival, it will ultimately bring disaster upon itself.
It is beyond doubt that China and all other peace-loving forces around the world will never allow Japan's neo-militarism to gain ground and endanger regional peace. They will resolutely and jointly push back against it. ■
