China slams Japan human rights resolution as ‘malicious slander,’ ‘gross interference’
By Ryan General
February 2, 2022
Japanese lawmakers have adopted a resolution expressing concerns over alleged human rights issues in China.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives of Japan’s legislative body, the National Diet, urged the Chinese government to address the “serious human rights situation” in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, reported Reuters.
Through the resolution, the National Diet’s lower house noted: “Human rights issues cannot just be domestic issues, because human rights hold universal values and are a rightful matter of concern for the international community.”
“This chamber recognizes changes to the status quo with force, which are symbolized by the serious human rights situation, as a threat to the international community,” the lower house added. It also urged the Japanese government to cooperate with the international community in potentially resolving the aforementioned issues.
The recent parliamentary resolution did not mention “China,” and it used the term “human rights situation” instead of terms such as “human rights violation.”
In response, China’s foreign ministry released a statement later that day claiming that the resolution “ignores the facts, maliciously slanders China’s human rights situation, seriously violates international law and basic norms governing international relations, grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs, and is extremely egregious in nature.”
China’s response also mentioned that Japan itself committed crimes when it “launched a war against other countries.”
Japan’s House of Representatives adopted the resolution, as pushed by the conservative wing of the country’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), ahead of the opening of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Feb. 4.
China, which has denied the alleged abuses in Xinjiang, has recently faced similar pushback from countries such as the U.S., which imposed a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics, as NextShark previously reported. Japan has said it will not send senior officials to the Beijing Games, although Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stopped short of calling it a diplomatic boycott, saying his country “does not intend to use a specific phrase,” reported The Japan Times.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been vocal about his stance on China since taking office in October last year, according to The Japan Times.
Four days into his new position, Kishida held a half-hour teleconference with Chinese President Xi Jinping in which he “expressed his candid views on various concerns,” including the alleged human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
Featured Image via Reuters
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