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

Top political advisor Wang Huning met with Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, special envoy of the Communist Party and government of Cuba, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and the foreign minister of Cuba, in Beijing on Thursday.

Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), recalled that the two meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in 2025 drew a blueprint for a closer China-Cuba community of shared future. China will continue to firmly support Cuba's just struggle against foreign interference and jointly uphold the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, he added.

Wang expressed the belief that the Communist Party of Cuba will overcome difficulties and lead the Cuban people to make new achievements on the path of socialist construction, and the CPPCC stands ready to deepen friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

For his part, Rodriguez said that China is a key force for maintaining world peace and represents hope for the Global South. He thanked China for its selfless assistance to Cuba and expressed Cuba's willingness to work together with China to implement the consensus reached by the heads of state of the two countries, continuously enhance bilateral relations and jointly defend international fairness and justice.

China's top political advisor meets special envoy of Communist Party, government of Cuba