(TibetanReview.net, Feb02’22) – China has reacted with vile anger against Japan for its parliament’s adoption on Feb 1 of a resolution which expressed concerns over human rights issues in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong. Japan is already not sending any cabinet minister to the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony on Feb 4 to make clear its concern on China’s human rights record, though not calling it a diplomatic boycott of the Games.
It is rare for the Japanese parliament to adopt such a resolution. Besides, it has come close to the start of the severely human rights-challenged and criticized Beijing Winter Olympics, which may explain the vileness of the Chinese official media’s attacks on the resolution.
Most of Japan’s ruling and opposition lawmakers approved the resolution, noted the scmp.com Feb 2.
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“The so-called resolution about human rights adopted by the Japan’s House of Representatives is extremely vile in nature,as it disregards facts and truth, maliciously denigratesChina’shuman rights conditions, gravely violates international law and basic norms governing international relations, and grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs,” China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian has said in a statement posted Feb 1 on the china-embassy.org website.
Zhao has said the “so-called human rights issues” raised by the Japanese parliament resolution “bears on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” allowing “no irresponsible comment by any external forces.”
Calling it a “severe political provocation against the Chinese people,” Zhao has added that competent official in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had lodged solemn representations with the Japaneseside and that his government reserved the right to take further measures.
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The resolution passed by Japan’s lower house stopped short of naming China, but expressed “concern about serious human rights conditions including the violation of religious freedom and internment in the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong” — all of which are ruled by China, noted the AP Feb 1.
It urged Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government to take steps to relieve the situation, further assess the human rights situation in China, and cooperate with the international community to protect victims.
“Human rights hold universal values and are of a legitimate concern for the international community,” the resolution stated, preempting China’s routine criticism of such resolutions as interference in China’s internal affairs.
In passing that resolution, the Japanese parliament joined lawmakers in Germany, Australia, and Italy who also have expressed serious concern over the human rights situation in China or in recognizing crimes against humanity, noted the Uyghur Service of rfa.org Feb 2.
As a military ally of the United States and a top trading partner for China, Japan has tried to balance its relations with Beijing. But conservatives in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party pushed for the adoption of the resolution prior to the Olympics’ opening, despite government concerns over a possible economic backlash from China, noted the AP report.