“Oppose Japan’s fabrication of China threat”- Beijing
July 2, 2014, 5:42 am

People protest against the rights for collective self-defense in front of the Japanese Prime Minister’s official residence in Tokyo, Japan, June 30, 2014 [Xinhua]

For historical reasons, Japanese policy moves in military and security fields are closely watched by its Asian neighbors and the international community, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily press briefing referring to the maritime row between the two sides and distrust owing to Japan’s past military aggression.

“We oppose Japan’s fabrication of the so-called China threat so as to serve its domestic political purposes,” Hong said in Beijing on Tuesday.

“We urge the Japanese side to earnestly respect legitimate security concerns of its Asian neighbors, deal with relevant issues with discretion, not to harm the national sovereignty and security interests of China and not to undermine regional peace and stability,” he added.

The Japanese government has recently made “unprecedented dramatic changes to its security policy”, he said.

“People cannot but question whether Japan will change the peaceful development path it has long stuck to since the end of World War II,” said Hong.

China also pointed out the dissent within as thousands of Japanese protested on Tuesday outside Abe’s office shouting, “Don’t destroy Article 9”, “We’re against war” and “No more Abe”.

“The development path of Japan should be decided by the Japanese people,” noted Hong.

Triggering concerns at home and abroad, the Japanese cabinet on Tuesday rubber-stamped the resolution to allow the country to exercise the right of collective self-defense by reinterpreting the pacifist Constitution, and paved the way for Japanese forces to fight abroad in defense of “countries with close ties.”

According to a survey conducted between June 27 and 29 by Japan’s Nikkei News, half of the Japanese population oppose the Abe government move as they believe this may drag Japan into war.

Source: Agencies