Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, raised several questions on Friday regarding Japan’s decision to dump radioactive wastewater, expressing a strong attitude against Japan’s behavior.
Zhao said that other countries find it hard to understand why Japan insists on a disposal method that is not safe and that could damage the global marine environment.
The Japanese side has said that the discharged water will be treated purified water, but then why bother to build storage tanks and seal them tightly?
The Japanese side claimed that the emissions follow international conventions and international standards, but there is no precedent in the world for discharging polluted water from nuclear accidents into the sea.
Has the standard unilaterally drawn by the Japanese side been objectively and independently verified and recognized by any third-party agency?
Japan has a stance that it values the concerns of the outside world, Zhao said, but has it fully negotiated with neighboring countries and international environmental protection organizations? Why is it so reluctant to set up a joint working group including Chinese experts under the framework of international institutions to accept international verification and supervision?
Reuters reported on Monday that a senior Japanese government official sent an email asking international media not to use the term contaminated to describe nuclear wastewater. If there is no pollution, Zhao noted, why is there a guilty conscience on the Japanese side?
Zhao said the Japanese people are also victims of environmental pollution. The Minamata disease, Yokkaichi Asthma and Itai-Itai disease that showed up in Japan in the last century were all caused by the concentrated discharge of harmful and toxic substances, which caused untold pain to tens of thousands of Japanese people.
“Dumping nuclear wastewater cannot be the first option, let alone the only option. Japan should be responsible to all mankind, to future generations, and should re-examine and retract wrong decisions,” Zhao said.
Japan should sincerely face the opposition from the world, and consciously accept the supervision of the international community, including China, and make the Fukushima nuclear wastewater disposal problem transparent, Zhao said.
China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned the Japanese ambassador to China Tarumi Hideo and lodged representations with the Japanese government over its decision to dump wastewater into the ocean.
SOS, Save Our Sea. Graphic: Xiong Xiaoying/GT
