Sun Lei, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said on Wednesday that Japan is fundamentally ineligible to seek permanent membership of the UN Security Council.
Sun Lei, chargé d'affaires of the Chinese Permanent Mission to the UN, made the remarks at the first session of the intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reform during the 80th session of the UN General Assembly. He said Japan is unable to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining international peace and security and cannot win the trust of the international community.
The Sun said the Security Council is the core of the international collective security mechanism and has a uniquely important responsibility to uphold the post-war international order and protect peace and security in the world.
He recalled the Tokyo trials of 80 years ago, which punished Japanese war criminals, upheld international justice, protected human dignity and served as a strong warning against any attempt at renewed militarism or aggressive expansion. However, he stressed that Japan had still not fully come to terms with its militaristic past.
Instead, according to Sun Lei, militarism has resurfaced in Japan in altered forms and is quietly growing.
Right-wing forces in Japan have sought to whitewash the history of aggression, repeatedly denying historical crimes such as the Nanking Massacre, the forced recruitment of „comfort women“ and forced labor, and seeking to revise history textbooks to challenge condemnations of Japanese wartime aggression. The Sun also reported that a number of contemporary Japanese leaders have visited Yasukuni Shrine, a spiritual symbol of militarism, and paid tribute to Class A war criminals.
Sun went on to criticize recent actions by right-wing Japanese forces, including Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's misstatements on the Taiwan issue and threats of force against China, pro-nuclear statements by senior officials, efforts to revise the so-called Three Security Documents, and claims of changing the Three Principles of Nuclear Nonproliferation - which prohibit a country from possessing, producing, or allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons on its territory. These steps, he said, reveal a dangerous intent to promote „re-militarization“ and revive militarism, posing new threats to regional and global peace and security.
„A country that shows no remorse for its historical crimes, violates the basic norms of international relations, questions the results of the Second World War and openly tramples on the post-war international order is fundamentally unfit to apply for permanent membership of the UN Security Council,“ Sun said.
Sun also noted that as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a responsible major country, China is ready to work with all peace-loving states and nations to consistently uphold the results of victory in World War II and the post-war international order, jointly safeguard the authority and unity of the Security Council, and play a constructive role in maintaining international peace and security.
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