Int'l experts express concern over Takaichi's erroneous remarks

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Int'l experts express concern over Takaichi's erroneous remarks

2025-12-14 13:49 Last Updated At：19:27

The erroneous remarks made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on China's Taiwan region have constantly drawn concerns and criticism from the international community.

At a Diet meeting last month, Takaichi claimed that the Chinese mainland's "use of force on Taiwan" could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan and implied the possibility of armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait.

Several international experts emphasized that these remarks interfere with China's internal affairs, posing a grave threat to the post-WWII international order and to regional peace and stability, and must be withdrawn immediately.

Speaking on Dec 13, the day that China observes as a National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victim, German scholar of international relations Eberhard Sandschneider suggested that Japan's failure to reconcile with its own history has allowed the way for the recent politically charged decisions that risk destabilizing regional diplomacy.

"We have had a very intensive debate about our own history here in Germany. And quite obviously, the same is not happening in Japan. And it is a part of the way you understand yourself in modern times, if you are not able to critically take into account what your country did in the past. It would be necessary. One should wish that Japan is making this step, but for the time being, unfortunately, I don't see any progress in this respect," he said.

Others have said Takaichi's remarks constitute a dangerous departure from international norms that challenge China's core sovereignty interests.

"I believe her remarks undermined the principle of the one-China policy, in terms of the position that China holds, and that, of course, amounts to interference. These actions are worrying. These actions risk taking the country back completely, and they are actions that should not be tolerated at all, because bringing back militarization is not something that should be encouraged, because it risks bringing war and also sending the very wrong signals about peace and stability and even governance of the country that is Japan itself," said Bernard Momanyi, editorial director of Capital FM, a news outlet in Kenya.

South China's Guangxi sees 10-pct growth in trade with ASEAN in Jan-Nov period

South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region saw a year-on-year growth of 10 percent in trade with countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from January to November this year, according to Nanning Customs.

In the first 11 months of 2025, Guangxi's imports and exports with ASEAN members reached 384.22 billion yuan (about 54.46 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 52.9 percent of the provincial-level region's total foreign trade during this period, said the authority.

Among them, Vietnam remained Guangxi's largest trading partner in the ASEAN region, with trade growing by 7.1 percent. The growth rates with Indonesia and Singapore were also remarkable, standing at 51.7 percent and 62.7 percent respectively.

During the same period, Guangxi imported and exported a total of 726.54 billion yuan worth of goods, increasing by 9.5 percent year on year, the customs data showed.