China calls for strict, long-term international supervision over Fukushima wastewater discharge: spokesman

China calls for strict and long-term international supervision over Japan's discharge of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Wednesday.

Guo made the statement at a press conference in Beijing in response to a media query about Japan's wastewater discharge.

"I would like to emphasize that China opposes Japan's unilateral discharge of nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean, and this position remains unchanged. Since last year, Chinese experts have visited Japan twice to independently collect samples and announced the relevant test results in a timely manner. On the basis that Japan has fulfilled its commitments and the test results haven't shown any abnormalities, the General Administration of Customs of China held in Beijing on March 12 technical exchanges with Japan over the safety of Japanese aquatic products," Guo said.

"China will continue to work with the rest of the international community to urge Japan to earnestly fulfill its commitments and ensure that the discharge of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea is always under strict international supervision," said the spokesman.

Hit by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and an ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered core meltdowns in three reactors that released radiation, resulting in a level-7 nuclear accident, the highest on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.

The plant then generated a massive amount of wastewater tainted with radioactive substances from cooling down the nuclear fuel in the reactor buildings.

Disregarding domestic and foreign questioning and protests, the Japanese government decided in April 2021 to "filter and dilute" the nuclear contaminated wastewater from the plant and started the ocean discharge of the radioactive wastewater on August 24, 2023. This process is expected to last 20 to 30 years, until the nuclear power plant is scrapped.

China calls for strict, long-term international supervision over Fukushima wastewater discharge: spokesman

The video footage captured from Saturday to Sunday in north China's Datong City, Shanxi Province, showed Oriental Stork chicks learning to feed themselves and fly under parental care as they prepare to live on their own.

The footage captured four Oriental Stork chicks bending their heads to peck at twigs inside the nest, practicing movements for picking up food, while a parent bird stood guard nearby.

In another nest, an adult stork returned to feed its brood. After filling their bellies, the three chicks adjusted their postures and kept spreading their wide wings and flapping them vigorously to practice flying.

Oriental Storks mostly inhabit woodlands and the peripheries of wetlands. Once the chicks can fly on their own, they will leave the nest to forage alongside their parents.

Oriental Stork chicks learn to eat, fly under parental care in Shanxi