Chinese envoy urges Japan to retract its erroneous remarks on Taiwan

China's permanent representative to the United Nations Fu Cong on Monday again urged Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to withdraw her erroneous remarks on China's Taiwan region, speaking in an open debate at the UN Security Council on "Leadership for Peace."

Fu said that exercising leadership for peace requires cherishing peace and upholding justice. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Yet, at a time when the international community is reflecting on history, the Japanese prime minister has claimed that Japan's so-called "survival-threatening situation" is related to China's Taiwan region, implying possible military intervention.

Such remarks, Fu said, constitute a crude interference in China's internal affairs, violate Japan's commitments as a defeated country in World War II, challenge the outcomes of the war and the postwar international order, and run counter to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, posing serious risks to regional and global peace.

Fu stressed that the lessons of World War II remain clear. Eighty years ago, Japanese militarism used the pretext of a "survival crisis" and "self-defense" to launch aggression, bringing disaster to China, Asia and the world. China will not allow militarism or fascism to resurface, he said, urging Japan to retract its remarks, seriously reflect on its history and stop moving further down a wrong path.

Fu also reaffirmed that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory and that Japan's return of Taiwan, which it had unlawfully seized, to China is a key element of the postwar international order, as formalized following Japan's unconditional surrender in 1945 and by international legal documents including the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, and China-Japan political agreements.