China rejects claims that Japanese PM has 'effectively retracted' erroneous remarks

(ECNS) — China on Thursday refuted comments by the leader of Japan’s main opposition party who claimed that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi had “effectively retracted” her controversial remarks by stopping to refer to a specific contingency scenario.

Responding to a question at a regular press conference, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Prime Minister Takaichi’s erroneous remarks seriously violated the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan, eroded the political foundation of China-Japan relations, and triggered outrage among the Chinese people.

“‘Stopping referring to’ is not the same as ‘retracting’ the remarks. The two are completely different in nature,” Guo said.

Guo added that the Japanese side hopes to downplay Prime Minister Takaichi’s erroneous remarks and make it go away by “not referring to” them. That is just self-deceiving and wishful thinking, and China would absolutely not accept that.