China reiterates Japan unqualified to bid for permanent UNSC seat

CGTN – A senior Chinese diplomat said on Wednesday that Japan is fundamentally unqualified to seek a seat as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Sun Lei, charge d’affaires of China’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, made the remarks at the first meeting of the intergovernmental negotiations on the reform of the Security Council 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.

Sun said that the Security Council is the core of the international collective security mechanism and bears a uniquely important responsibility for upholding the postwar international order and safeguarding international peace and security.

Recalling the Tokyo Trials 80 years ago, Sun said they punished Japanese war criminals, upheld international justice, defended human dignity and served as a powerful warning against any attempt to revive militarism or pursue renewed aggression and expansion. However, he noted that Japan has failed to fully reckon with its militarist past.

Instead, Sun said, Japanese militarism has resurfaced in altered forms and grown quietly.

Right-wing forces in Japan have worked hard to whitewash the history of aggression, repeatedly denying historical crimes such as the Nanjing Massacre, the forced recruitment of “comfort women” and forced labor, while pushing for revisions to history textbooks in an attempt to overturn the verdict on Japan’s wartime aggression, Sun said. He added that multiple incumbent Japanese leaders have visited the Yasukuni Shrine, a spiritual symbol of militarism, paying homage to Class-A war criminals.

Sun further criticized a series of recent actions by Japan’s right-wing forces, including Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s erroneous remarks on the Taiwan question and threats of the use of force against China, senior officials’ pro-nuclear statements, attempts to revise the so-called three security documents and claims of altering the Three Non-Nuclear Principles – which prohibit the country from possessing, producing or allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons into its territory. These moves, he said, expose a dangerous intention 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 basic norms governing international relations, challenges the outcomes of World War II and openly tramples on the postwar international order is fundamentally unqualified to seek a seat as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, said Sun.

Sun also noted that as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a responsible major country, China is willing to work with all peace-loving countries and peoples to firmly uphold the outcomes of the victory in World War II and the postwar international order, jointly safeguard the authority and unity of the Security Council and play a constructive role in maintaining international peace and security.