BEIJING, (Xinhua) — China urges the Japanese government to speed up the destruction process of the abandoned chemical weapons (ACWs) and restore a safe living environment for the Chinese people at an early date, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Friday.
It is reported that a civic group in Japan held an exhibition in Yokohama City to expose the Japanese military’s wartime production and use of poison gas and its waging of gas warfare against China and Southeast Asian countries during WWII. After Japan’s defeat, some chemical weapons were left behind in China, continuing to cause harm to local people.
In response to a media inquiry, Lin told a regular press briefing that during WWII, Japanese militarists developed and used chemical weapons on a large scale in China and other Asian countries, which constitutes a blatant violation of international law and has caused untold suffering on multiple countries.
In China alone, there are more than 2,000 cases of Japanese forces using chemical weapons, causing more than 200,000 Chinese military and civilian casualties, according to Lin.
After Japan’s defeat, in an attempt to cover up its crimes, a large number of chemical weapons were left behind in China, resulting in more than 2,000 casualties so far and posing a serious threat to Chinese people’s lives and the ecological environment, he added.
Lin said that the Japanese government has demonstrated insufficient sincerity and given inadequate input in fulfilling its obligations of the Chemical Weapons Convention concerning the complete destruction of the ACWs, and the destruction process is seriously lagging behind schedule.
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.
“To remove the hazardous ACWs is Japanese government’s unshirkable historical responsibility and due obligation under international law,” Lin said.
