washington – China has tightened checks on Japanese seafood, escalating diplomatic tensions with its neighbor over Tokyo’s plan to launch handled wastewater from the broken Fukushima nuclear energy plant into the Pacific Ocean.
The General Administration of Customs in China started inspecting seafood imports from Japan for radiation earlier this month, Japanese media reported Wednesday.
This follows the company’s July 7 announcement that prolonged a ban on seafood merchandise from 10 Japanese prefectures, together with Fukushima, due to radiation issues. China is the most important purchaser of Japan’s seafood exports.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated at a briefing on Thursday that Beijing had tightened the restrictions as a result of ‘the Chinese authorities places individuals first.’
She continued, ‘Our job is to be liable for the well being of our individuals and the marine atmosphere. Our opposition to Japan’s ocean discharge plan relies on information and cause; so are the measures that now we have determined to take.’
FILE – An aerial view exhibits the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy plant following a robust earthquake, in Okuma city, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, on this picture taken by Kyodo on March 17, 2022. (Kyodo/through Reuters)
The restrictions got here as Japan prepares to discharge the handled waters from its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy plant. There isn’t any confirmed date for the discharge on the plant, which was broken within the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
Japan dismissed Chinese objections to its plan, calling on Beijing to take away restrictions on Japanese seafood.
Japan ‘has lengthy urged Chinese authorities to rapidly take away import restrictions on Japanese meals merchandise primarily based on scientific proof,’ stated a spokesperson for the Japanese Embassy in Washington in an electronic mail to VOA’s Korean Service on Wednesday.
Tokyo will proceed ‘to make a concerted effort to enchantment to the Chinese authorities by means of each attainable alternative’ and ‘clarify the conclusion of the IAEA report back to the worldwide neighborhood with a excessive degree of transparency,’ stated the spokesperson, referring to the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency.
The resolution to begin releasing the water, initially set for a while in August, got here after the IAEA stated in a report offered to Tokyo earlier this month that the discharge meets its security requirements.
Some specialists see Beijing’s restrictions on seafood imports from Japan as a transfer to instill doubts concerning the security of handled water from the Fukushima nuclear energy plant that Tokyo stated could be launched as soon as it addressed ‘reputational damages’ related to the method.
‘China would not belief Japan’
Andrew Yeo, the SK-Korea Foundation chair in Korea Studies at Brookings Institution’s Center for East Asia Policy Studies, stated, ‘China would not belief Japan or the IAEA’s report concerning Fukushima waters.’
Yeo continued, ‘The inspections on seafood imports [are] supposed to proceed sowing doubts on the IAEA’s findings and undermine Japan’s declare concerning the security of its seafood and fish exports.’
The European Union introduced final week that it will raise restrictions on seafood imports from Japan imposed over 12 years in the past, Euronews reported. European Council President Charles Michel stated the choice was primarily based on scientific proof offered by the IAEA.
The IAEA report concluded the discharge of 1.3 million metric tons of the handled water from the Fukushima plant could be secure and have negligible radiological affect on individuals and the atmosphere.
The water has been filtered by means of the Advanced Liquid Processing System to take away most radioactive contamination besides tritium, in response to IAEA.
However, an article by China’s state-run English-language newspaper, the China Daily, on Monday stated Japan’s plans to launch the handled water makes seafood customers and restaurant homeowners anxious about Japanese imports.
Daniel Sneider, a lecturer in worldwide coverage and East Asian research at Stanford University, stated Beijing needs ‘to place stress on Japan and to play into Korean narratives promoted by the opposition social gathering in [South] Korea.’
He stated the principle purpose of China’s inspections of Japanese seafood imports ‘appears to be to feed related fears’ amongst individuals in China as exist amongst customers in South Korea ‘with the slightly apparent goal of undermining progress in repairing Korea-Japan relations.’
On July 7, South Korea formally endorsed the Japanese resolution to launch the handled water upon the IAEA’s approval of the discharge. Opposition lawmakers have been towards the choice.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi arrived in Seoul on July 8 after his go to to Tokyo and met with opposition lawmakers explaining the IAEA’s approval primarily based on ‘scientific’ analysis.
South Korean Lawmakers Berate IAEA Chief Over Fukushima Plan
Hundreds of South Koreans marched in Seoul protesting the discharge plans throughout Grossi’s three-day go to in Seoul.
Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have been bettering since South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol reached out to Tokyo in March, leading to two summits in March and May, the primary for the 2 nations in 12 years.
Ties between the 2 U.S. allies had been frayed over a historic dispute stemming from the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo are planning to carry a summit in August, Yoon’s workplace stated Thursday. At the G7 summit in Hiroshima in May, President Joe Biden had invited Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a gathering in Washington this summer time.