China has recently been lambasting Japan for discharging treated water from the disaster-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station into the ocean. China has also announced a complete ban on imports of aquatic products from Japan. Yet China’s sea, land and air are full of pollutants such as chemicals and heavy metals, and the water discharged from China’s nuclear power stations contains seven times the tritium of the water discharged from the Fukushima plant.
Food safety in China is poorly managed and its tap water is unsafe. With scandals over prohibited additives like melamine, malachite green and Sudan red, Chinese still often travel to Hong Kong to buy large quantities of everyday products, either for themselves or to resell for profit, which causes social and market disruptions in Hong Kong.
Furthermore, given China’s strict control on reporting, there is no way to know how many more food safety incidents have taken place, and the situation has not improved over the years. It is ironic for China to ban imports of Japanese aquatic products in the name of “food safety,” and the motive is clearly political.
The Japanese government has responded to public worries about radioactive tritium in the water discharged from the Fukushima plant by promising that the water has been processed through an advanced treatment system. The Japanese authorities have also taken ocean currents into account to minimize the impact on neighboring countries.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that if the water is discharged in accordance with Japanese standards, it will not cause any noticeable harm to the environment.
Given that the sea is one of the most important resources on which Japanese depend for their livelihood, and that Japan is a democracy where the government is supervised by public opinion, the Japanese government is sure to carefully protect the marine environment and would never ignore international regulations as China sometimes does.
China is using the nuclear wastewater issue to deepen anti-Japanese sentiment among the Chinese public and divert attention from its own domestic economic crisis. Yet, by sowing fear with no regard for scientific data, China might be making trouble for itself.
Reports have emerged of Chinese stocking up on cooking salt to supposedly prevent any harm from Japan’s nuclear effluent, for which there is no scientific basis whatsoever. This panic stirred up by the government might do serious damage to China’s fishing industry by causing a fall in domestic demand. As well as having an impact on the economy, it would increase the burden of food imports. Pointless panic buying and stockpiling causes social and market disruption and can only harm the public’s livelihood.
Fear-mongering is also a cognitive warfare tactic that China uses against Taiwan. Previous examples include medical masks, vaccines and US-sourced pork. With regard to the current issue of water discharged from the Fukushima plant, China is using the international prestige of certain “Hong Kong experts,” who are actually being coerced under Hong Kong ’s National Security Law, in an attempt to erode the trust that exists between Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan.
Spreading rumors that threaten social stability is not freedom of speech. Taiwan’s government should respond more strongly, such as blocking access to Chinese social media like Tik Tok and Xiaohongshu, thus cutting off China’s most direct channels for spreading rumors.
Hong Tsun-ming, originally from Hong Kong, is a specialist in the Taiwan Statebuilding Party’s international section.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry gives it a strategic advantage, but that advantage would be threatened as the US seeks to end Taiwan’s monopoly in the industry and as China grows more assertive, analysts said at a security dialogue last week. While the semiconductor industry is Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” its dominance has been seen by some in the US as “a monopoly,” South Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University academic Kwon Seok-joon said at an event held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In addition, Taiwan lacks sufficient energy sources and is vulnerable to natural disasters and geopolitical threats from China, he said.
After reading the article by Hideki Nagayama [English version on same page] published in the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Wednesday, I decided to write this article in hopes of ever so slightly easing my depression. In August, I visited the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan, to attend a seminar. While there, I had the chance to look at the museum’s collections. I felt extreme annoyance at seeing that the museum had classified Taiwanese indigenous peoples as part of China’s ethnic minorities. I kept thinking about how I could make this known, but after returning
What value does the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hold in Taiwan? One might say that it is to defend — or at the very least, maintain — truly “blue” qualities. To be truly “blue” — without impurities, rejecting any “red” influence — is to uphold the ideology consistent with that on which the Republic of China (ROC) was established. The KMT would likely not object to this notion. However, if the current generation of KMT political elites do not understand what it means to be “blue” — or even light blue — their knowledge and bravery are far too lacking
Taipei’s population is estimated to drop below 2.5 million by the end of this month — the only city among the nation’s six special municipalities that has more people moving out than moving in this year. A city that is classified as a special municipality can have three deputy mayors if it has a population of more than 2.5 million people, Article 55 of the Local Government Act (地方制度法) states. To counter the capital’s shrinking population, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) held a cross-departmental population policy committee meeting on Wednesday last week to discuss possible solutions. According to Taipei City Government data, Taipei’s