Japan Press Weekly

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2020 December 23 - 2021 January 5 TOP3 [WORLD]

Japan worked on other countries to tone down condemnation of China's 1989 action in Tiananmen

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on December 23 disclosed diplomatic documents on the "Tiananmen Square crackdown" which occurred in June 1989, revealing that the government of Japan in July of the same year worked on other countries at the Arch Summit in France to tone down the wording of the condemnation of China in the G7 statement.

Among the released documents are materials showing that Japan's Foreign Ministry advised the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo about how to dispel a negative impression by the international community of the action taken by China, and that the government of Japan set an example for the Chinese side of "a statement by the government of China" suggesting, "The incident is an internal issue of China, caused in part by agitators to overthrow the People's Republic of China. Both the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government are firmly fighting back against this attempt."

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo at a press conference in the Diet building on December 24 said, "These documents are an indication of Japan having taken the side of the oppressor," and demanded that diplomacy standing firm against human-rights violations be established in Japan.

He said, "The Japanese government at that time not only objected to sanctions against China as proposed by France in the G7 Summit but also took sides with the Chinese government regarding the extreme suppression of human rights."

Focusing on the Japanese government in the unveiled documents consistently regarding the 1989 massacre as "an internal affair of China", Shii said, "Human-rights abuses are still going on in Hong Kong and Xinjiang Uighur. However, the Japanese government neither protests nor criticizes China squarely. It always expresses its 'concern' or its intent to 'observe' the situation."

Shii said, "Everything about human rights is an international issue," as the Chinese government itself endorses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights, and the Vienna Declaration.

He pointed out, "The greatest weakness of Japan's diplomacy is its hesitancy in lodging a protest against human-rights violations in China," and underscored the need to adopt foreign policies which allow zero tolerance for the infringement of human rights.

Past related article:
> China's leadership still doesn't reflect on 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown [June 5, 2020]