China calls to firmly counter any attempt to revive militarism

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Wednesday called on the international community to remain highly vigilant, firmly counter any attempt to revive militarism, and to jointly uphold the post-war international order and safeguard world peace.

Her remarks followed a wave of recent analysis noting that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is the first postwar Japanese leader to explicitly link a so-called "Taiwan contingency" with a "survival-threatening situation".

Such a linkage, analysts say, would allow Japan to invoke what it calls "collective self-defense", making the possibility of Japanese military involvement in the Taiwan Strait real — a move that crosses China's bottom line.

Mao said at a press briefing that history shows Japan's militarism repeatedly used the pretexts of "existential crisis" and "self-defense" to launch external aggression. "The alarm has sounded; tragedy must not be allowed to recur," she said.

Mao noted that the "collective self-defense" stipulated in the United Nations Charter was created for the purpose of safeguarding collective security and preventing the resurgence of fascism. Japan, as a defeated country in World War II, was restricted from exercising this right, she added.

Mao emphasized that the Potsdam Proclamation explicitly stated that Japan must be disarmed, and Japan has pledged in its Constitution to renounce war forever and to abandon the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes, establishing the principle of exclusive self-defense.