BEIJING, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- The international community should urge Japan to abide by the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, faithfully fulfill its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and completely abandon its attempts at "remilitarization" and nuclear possession, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Spokesperson Guo Jiakun made the remarks at a daily press briefing after the incumbent head of Japan's defense department said that discussions on Japan's possession of nuclear weapons and nuclear submarines should be made "without taboo."
The possession of nuclear weapons is not an issue that Japan can "allow discussion" if it wants to, Guo said, adding that Japan is a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the NPT and therefore has a bounden duty under international law to not receive, manufacture, acquire or transfer nuclear weapons, and there is no room for negotiation.
Guo pointed put that in February, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reiterated Japan's commitment to the three non-nuclear principles, and Japan's representative reaffirmed multiple times at the Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT this year that the three non-nuclear principles would not be changed.
"The 'no-nuclear-taboo' remark by the incumbent head of Japan's defense establishment is a blatant provocation and serious stomp on the NPT and the postwar international order. It is diametrically opposed to the three non-nuclear principles that Japan claims to uphold. His remark once again revealed the Japanese right-wing pursuit of a nuclear Japan," Guo said.
In recent years, Japan has been accelerating remilitarization and attempting to revise the three non-nuclear principles by strengthening the so-called "extended deterrence" arrangement, seeking nuclear weapon deployment in Japan, attempting to progressively ease nuclear restrictions, and challenging the red line drawn by the international community, Guo added.
Noting that this year marks 80 years of the opening of the Tokyo Trials, Guo said that history has not and will not forget the calamities brought by Japanese militarism onto the people in Asia and elsewhere in the world.
"As Japanese right-wing forces keep challenging the postwar international order and the non-proliferation regime and moving further down the wrong path, the international community needs to call on Japan to strictly observe the three non-nuclear principles, fulfill its obligations under the NPT, abandon remilitarization and nuclear attempt, and earnestly respond to the concerns of the international community," Guo said. ■
