The issue of Japan's abandoned chemical weapons (ACWs) in China has once again gained attention following a recent call by foreign envoys for their complete destruction without further delay.

The director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the chairperson of the Executive Council, as well as permanent representatives and senior diplomats from 12 countries to the OPCW, visited China from August 31 to September 5. During the visit, they travelled to Hunchun, Dunhua and Haerbaling in northeast China's Jilin Province to inspect the excavation, recovery and destruction of Japan's ACWs.

With a deeper understanding of the grave harm posed by Japan's ACWs to the lives and property of the Chinese people and to the country's ecological environment, the foreign delegation expressed support for the OPCW, in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, in urging the Japanese side to earnestly fulfill its obligations by thoroughly destroying its ACWs in China without further delay, so as to restore a safe habitat for the Chinese people at an early date and realize the noble goal of a world free of chemical weapons as envisaged by the convention.

After gaining a deeper understanding of the serious harm posed by the weapons to the lives and property of the Chinese people and the ecological environment, the delegation expressed support for the OPCW in urging Japan to earnestly fulfill its obligations and completely destroy its ACWs in China without further delay.

A lingering issue from wartime aggression

The issue of Japanese ACWs in China is closely tied to Japan's wartime aggression against China, during which Japanese militarists, in blatant violation of international law, deployed a large number of chemical weapons.

A total of 1,791 instances of chemical weapon use have been documented with confirmed dates, locations and casualty records. The resulting casualties exceeded 200,000, according to the white paper titled "China's Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation in the New Era," which was issued by China's State Council Information Office in late November last year.

After its defeat, Japan abandoned a large quantity of chemical weapons in China to cover up its crimes, said the white paper, adding that since the end of World War II, these abandoned chemical weapons resulted in more than 2,000 casualties due to poisoning, gravely endangered the lives and property of the Chinese people as well as the environment.

Up until May 2023, Japanese ACWs have been found in more than 120 locations in 18 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government in China, according to a report on the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention in China released in May 2023.

As of March 31, 2023, a total of 65,903 items of Japanese ACWs were destroyed, said the report.

Responsibility and obligation

Japan, as a state party to the Chemical Weapons Convention, should have completed the destruction of the abandoned chemical weapons by 2007 under the convention. However, the deadline has been postponed four times, respectively in 2007, 2012, 2016 and 2022.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a recent press conference that the Japanese government has demonstrated insufficient sincerity and given inadequate input in fulfilling its obligations of the convention concerning the complete destruction of the ACWs, and the destruction process is seriously lagging behind schedule.

Lin said China urges the Japanese government to fulfill its responsibility under relevant convention, face up to the just call from visionary people in its own country and victim neighboring countries, and comprehensively and faithfully fulfill the requirements of international convention and the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two governments to speed up the destruction process, Lin said.

"To remove the hazardous ACWs is Japanese government's unshirkable historical responsibility and due obligation under international law," Lin said.

Zhang Gaosheng, an expert at the China Institute of International Studies, said Japan's delayed destruction of abandoned chemical weapons is linked to far-right narratives that downplay wartime crimes and view the issue as a diplomatic burden rather than a historical responsibility. Zhang added that such perceptions reflect the growing influence of right-wing forces and a distortion of the history of World War II.