China urges Japan to speed up destruction of abandoned chemical weapons

China's Ministry of National Defense on Thursday urged Japan to face up to its historical responsibility and take concrete measures to accelerate the destruction of chemical weapons abandoned in China by the Japanese military.

Jiang Bin, spokesman for the ministry, made the remarks at a regular news conference on the 27th anniversary of the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the governments of China and Japan on the destruction of Japanese abandoned chemical weapons in China.

He said the abandoned chemical weapons are among the serious crimes committed by Japanese militarism during its war of aggression against China.

"Fully destroying the abandoned Japanese chemical weapons as soon as possible is an unshirkable historical, political and legal responsibility for Japan, as well as an international obligation under the Chemical Weapons Convention," Jiang said.

Under the timeline set by the convention and the memorandum, Japan was required to complete the destruction of all abandoned chemical weapons in China by 2007. However, Japan has repeatedly delayed the process, causing the destruction plan to miss its deadline four times, he said.

Jiang attributed the slow progress to Japan's lack of sincerity and investment in fulfilling its obligations, particularly its failure to provide detailed information on the locations where the chemical weapons were buried.

As a result, a large number of abandoned Japanese chemical weapons remain undiscovered, continuing to threaten the lives and property of the Chinese people as well as ecological security, he said.

"Japan owes the Chinese people an explanation and owes the world an explanation," Jiang said, adding that "evading key responsibilities or attempting to muddle through is not acceptable."

He urged Japan to face up to its historical and practical responsibilities, take effective measures to accelerate the destruction process, and return "a clean land" to the Chinese people at an early date.

At the same news conference, Jiang also criticized recent remarks by Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi regarding Japan's nuclear policy, saying any pursuit of nuclear ambitions by Japan represents a red line that must never be crossed.

Koizumi recently said Japan should discuss policies related to nuclear weapons "without any taboos".

Describing the remarks as "provocative and dangerous", Jiang said they exposed Japan's attempts to mislead the international community.

He added that any attempt by Japan to breach the country's three non-nuclear principles would seriously violate its obligations under international law and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Such actions would severely undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and pose a grave threat to the outcomes of the victory of World War II and the post-war international order, he said.