Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul in Gyeongju, the Republic of Korea, calling for more solid progress in building a China-Thailand community with a shared future.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 32nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting.
During the meeting, Xi first extended deep condolences over the passing of Thailand's Queen Mother Sirikit and asked Anutin to convey his sincere sympathies to King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua.
Xi said that China and Thailand are good neighbors, friends, relatives and partners who visit each other as often as a close family.
Xi said since his last visit to Thailand in November 2022, the development of bilateral relations has entered a new phase of building a China-Thailand community with a shared future, with the friendship further consolidated and cooperation becoming more dynamic.
Noting that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries and also the "Golden Jubilee of China-Thailand Friendship," Xi said the two sides should build on past achievements to open a new chapter, jointly push for more solid progress in building a China-Thailand community with a shared future, and boost each other's modernization process, so as to make greater contributions to regional peace, stability, development and prosperity.
China stands ready to strengthen the synergy of development strategies with Thailand and share its development experience, Xi said, calling for accelerating the construction of the China-Thailand railway and boosting cooperation in such areas as agricultural product trade, green economy, and digital innovation.
Xi also called for deepening tourism, youth, as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
Both countries, Xi continued, need to step up efforts to crack down on such cross-border crimes as online gambling and telecom fraud, so as to create a safe environment for bilateral exchanges and cooperation.
In the face of a turbulent and complex international situation, China is ready to work with Thailand on the implementation of the Global Governance Initiative, uphold international fairness and justice, and safeguard the common interests of the Global South, Xi said.
For his part, Anutin said Thailand deeply appreciates President Xi extending condolences over Queen Mother Sirikit's passing.
Calling the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries an important milestone, the prime minister said Thailand will take the opportunity to maintain closer high-level exchanges with China, strengthen cooperation in sectors such as economy and trade, science and technology, connectivity and tourism, and jointly push Thai-China relations to new heights.
Anutin said Thailand will continue to crack down hard on online gambling and telecom fraud.
He said the four major global initiatives put forward by President Xi demonstrate China's role as a responsible major country in international affairs, which Thailand highly appreciates and actively supports.
Thailand is ready to enhance multilateral coordination with China and work with China to promote regional peace, stability and prosperity, said Anutin.
Xi calls for more solid progress in building China-Thailand community with shared future
The Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in northeast China's Harbin released on Thursday a 38-minute video of a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII).
In the footage, former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out bacterial dispersal and frostbite experiments.
The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, capital city of Heilongjiang Province.
Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's human experiments in the field by measuring wind direction, wind speed and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results.
Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.
At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground and sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.
Nishijima also revealed that a Japanese military doctor once died after removing the mask and becoming infected during an experiment, indirectly proving the extreme virulence of the bacterial agents.
The video further disclosed details of the meteorological squad's involvement in frostbite experiments. To study wartime needs in frigid regions, the invading Japanese army forced the victims to expose their bodies for five to ten minutes in temperatures ranging from minus 20 to minus 35 degrees Celsius and observed their physical reactions.
"For example, during frostbite experiments, we would be sent outside to observe the weather. They wouldn't bring many people out at once, only two or three, who would be forced to take off their upper garments or all their clothes. In fact, it was already quite tough to stay out there for five to ten minutes, because it was too cold," Nishijima said.
According to the exhibition hall, Unit 731 had a separate frostbite laboratory, with Hisato Yoshimura serving as the leader of the unit's frostbite study squad from 1938 to 1945.
In a paper on frostbite published in 1941, Yoshimura recorded data from live human experiments to study the occurrence of frostbite and pathological changes in the human body under different conditions.
"This is a form from the paper. Titled 'The Severity and Process of Frostbite,' it divides frostbite into three stages. The symptoms of the first-degree frostbite are redness and swelling. Blisters appear in the second stage. And the third-degree frostbite features necrosis and ulceration. It says here that, in the third stage, from the 50th to the 60th day, toes and fingers detached. There is no doubt that these data were obtained through numerous human experiments," said Tan Tian, a researcher of the exhibition hall.
Nishijima's video, a piece of oral history from a perpetrator's perspective, further reconstructs the criminal chain of Unit 731 and once again demonstrates that the invading Japanese army's biological warfare crime was systematic and inhumane, and was an undeniable historical truth, according to the exhibition hall.
"Unit 731's frostbite experiments were essentially conducted to prevent and treat frostbite during combat in cold environments. However, for the so-called prevention and treatment of frostbite, they caused frostbite on living people for experiments and data analysis. So in nature, it still serves the purpose of war," said Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition at the hall.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.
At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and more than 300,000 people in China were killed by Japan's biological weapons.
Video offers new evidence of Japan's wartime germ-warfare crimes in northeast China
