The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Japan's claim that treated nuclear wastewater in Fukushima Prefecture is "safe" is not persuasive and politicians who are trying to prove it should use the water themselves.

At Thursday's regular press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Japan only referred to the data it collected itself, adding that the process lacked third-party evaluation and supervision by international agencies.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday that his government has decided to discharge nuclear wastewater in Fukushima Prefecture into the sea after convening a meeting of relevant ministers, which immediately received domestic and international backlash.

Read More: China urges Japan to reconsider Fukushima decision, warning of future action

Zhao said the Japanese politicians trying hard to prove the nuclear wastewater is safe should use it for drinking, cooking, cleaning and irrigation. They have to guarantee that seafood won't be contaminated, and they have to take advice from the International Atomic Energy Agency, he said.

The spokesperson added that Japan shouldn't be assured just because the U.S. has backed its decision, pointing out that the U.S. has restricted Japanese food imports, including rice and fish.

The neighboring Philippines has also reacted to Japan's decision, saying those who pollute the environment will pay for the price.

"I can only repeat the principles of international environmental law that I hope all countries will comply with," Harry Roque, the Philippines' presidential spokesperson, said during a virtual press briefing on Thursday. 

"The first principle is that we are one ecosystem, the second principle is we are interconnected, and the third principle is that the polluter must pay."

(Cover: The huge tanks that store treated nuclear wastewater at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture, October 12, 2017. /Xinhua)