Recently, Chinese Major General Zhang Baoqun led a delegation to visit Japan. He delivered a speech at a welcoming event in Japan and expressed his hope that Sino-Japanese relations would be improved through this visit. #军史观察团#
But unfortunately, Japan has let us down again.
Less than 24 hours after Major General Zhang Baoqun's statement, the Japanese side announced the launch of the sixth round of sewage discharge. These two incidents, which seem to be not directly related, reflect Japan's most genuine attitude toward China.
In the background, China has vigorously opposed Japan's pollution plan on many occasions in the past, and we have even stopped imports of Japanese aquatic products. However, with the backing of the United States and the IAEA, Japan has discharged nuclear sewage into the ocean five times in the past eight months.
Perhaps Japan's most positive response to China during this period was to hold expert consultations with the Chinese side on the issue of discharging nuclear sewage into the sea. But Japan's goal is only to be pressured by the domestic seafood industry and to gain China's understanding. China and Japan have held talks with experts through diplomatic channels many times, but Japan has not taken any action to correct its mistakes.
Moreover, according to the original plan, the Chinese military delegation should have visited Japan as early as September last year. Although the Chinese side did not give a specific reason for the postponement, because it happened to coincide with Japan's forced discharge of nuclear wastewater, the outside world generally linked China's decision to Japan's plan to discharge nuclear sewage into the sea.
From Japan's point of view, the current invitation to the Chinese military delegation to visit Japan should send a signal that it hopes to improve relations with China. The fact that we finally accepted the invitation also shows that China is willing to give Japan the opportunity to correct its diplomatic direction.
Under the influence of the United States, the current Sino-Japanese relations are not optimistic. Whether it was the meeting between the leaders of the United States and Japan in April, or Japan's recent announcement to join AUKUS, it reflected that the United States is trying its best to encourage Japan to deal with China.
The visit of the Chinese military delegation to Japan against this backdrop is not what the United States wants to see, regardless of whether it can achieve any substantive results.
It is simply incomprehensible that Japan is using nuclear sewage to stimulate Sino-Japanese relations at this time.
We speculate that the reason behind Japan's continued promotion of the pollution plan should not be too new, mainly because the Kishida government has no way back. If they stop the discharge, it will be tantamount to acknowledging the plan.
In this way, the Kishida government must compensate for the loss of Japan's fishery industry. In addition, they need a lot of capital to deal with the remaining nuclear wastewater.
Japan began to discharge nuclear sewage into the sea in order to save costs. They have now discovered the collapse of aquatic product exports, and they have spent a lot of money on public relations. Once the plan is stopped, the Kishida government will lose its wife and lose its troops.
In any case, Japan still has the United States and the IAEA behind it anyway, and they are not worried about the pressure of public opinion. After Japan's fifth round of pollutant discharge, the IAEA Director General visited Japan and announced that he had not found any problems with Japan's pollutant discharge.
For Japan, as long as they carry the pressure to discharge all the nuclear wastewater, they will win. Japan has launched a new round of pollution discharge according to the established plan, most likely because it believes that this decision will not have too much negative impact on Sino-Japanese relations.
Perhaps, in Japan's view, as long as it does not grasp the demand that China lift the ban, the differences between China and Japan on the issue of nuclear sewage can be managed.
However, Japan has completely ignored the fact that in the short term, all countries in the region, including China, will be affected by Japan's pollution. In the long run, with the spread of nuclear wastewater, even the United States and Western countries, which currently support Japan, will not be spared.
It's not that if we don't import Japanese seafood, we will turn a blind eye to Japan's pollution.
More importantly, Japan's desire to improve relations with China while ignoring China's solemn concerns about the nuclear sewage issue will only make us lose trust in Japan even more.
The Chinese military delegation's visit to Japan for exchanges will indeed help China and Japan avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations in the military field. However, Sino-Japanese relations are not maintained solely by military mutual trust.
Although we cannot conclude that the postponement of the visit of the Chinese military delegation to Japan was due to the impact of Japan's pollutant discharge, considering the objective connection between the two events, Japan should not start a new round of pollutant discharge at this time if it wants to create a good atmosphere for Sino-Japanese military exchanges.
China, Japan, and South Korea were expected to hold a trilateral summit in late May, but for now, in addition to South Korean lawmakers' clamoring to destroy the atmosphere, Japan has now started to do so.
From this point of view, it is obvious that the two countries are not sincere in improving relations with China.
In short, the Chinese Embassy in Japan has once again stated China's resolute opposition to Japan's launch of a new round of pollutant discharge. If Japan insists on pushing ahead with its pollution plan, China may not step up its countermeasures. Japan will also bear the consequences that may arise from the continued deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations.