BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday that there is no room for consideration for Japan to follow the postwar international order and honor its international obligations.
Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks in response to a relevant query. According to reports, during a House of Representatives Budget Committee session, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said there was room to consider remarks made by former foreign minister Katsuya Okada suggesting that U.S. nuclear-armed vessels could be allowed to port in Japan during a crisis. Takaichi hinted at the possibility of explicitly stating exceptions to the Three Non-Nuclear Principles.
"The remarks once again revealed Japanese authorities' inflating ambitions of possessing nuclear weapons," said Mao, adding that the current Japanese administration has been turning a blind eye to its international obligations on non-proliferation, attempting to progressively ease nuclear restrictions, strengthen the so-called "extended deterrence" arrangement with its allies, ditch the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, and introduce nuclear-powered submarines, and even seeking to deploy nuclear weapons in Japan.
"Such moves pose a serious threat to peace and stability in Asia and the wider world," Mao added.
Mao noted that Japan should face up to the concerns of the international community, do serious soul-searching on Japanese militarists' past crimes, abandon "remilitarization" and nuclear attempt, and do not stand on the opposite side of the international community once again.
When asked to comment on the remarks by Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who questioned China's criticism against Japan by claiming that countries that do not possess nuclear weapons or strategic bombers are being criticized by countries that possess both, Mao said that as a WWII defeated nation and a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Japan is obligated under international law to refrain from breaching the exclusively defense-oriented policy and possessing nuclear weapons.
"It is high time that Japanese politicians caught up on history and law," Mao added. ■
