A video shared by official social media accounts of local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials this week argues China could “use nuclear bombs continuously” against Japan if the country attempts to defend Taiwan from Chinese military aggression, Newsweek reported Wednesday.
“Still live on the YouTube-like platform Xigua, under an account run by the Baoji Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, the video calls for Beijing to launch nuclear strikes on Japan if Tokyo intervenes in a Chinese invasion of democratic Taiwan,” the U.S.-based news magazine reported July 14.
Xigua is owned by Bytedance, the same Chinese company responsible for the short form video network Tiktok.
“The five-minute clip was created by verified military commentary channel ‘Liujun Taolue.’ The original was posted on Sunday [July 11] and later deleted after amassing more than 2 million views — but not before it was reposted by the official party account in Baoji, Shaanxi province,” according to Newsweek.
Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province and has vowed to forcefully “reunify” the island, located off China’s southeastern coast, with mainland China by force if necessary. In the video clip, an unidentified narrator refers to a theoretical “reunification” of Taiwan with China as a “liberation.”
“When we liberate Taiwan, if Japan dares to intervene by force — even if it only deploys one soldier, one plane, and one ship — we will not only return reciprocal fire but also start a full-scale war against Japan,” the narrator says, adding, “We will use nuclear bombs first.”
“We will use nuclear bombs continuously until Japan declares unconditional surrender for the second time,” the voiceover threatens.
“By ‘second time’, the CCP referred to the surrender of Japan to the allied forces after the nuclear bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II,” the Indian news site OpIndia noted on Wednesday.
Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Aso Taro indicated on July 5 that Tokyo would consider a Chinese military invasion of Taiwan “an existential threat” to Japanese national security, “allowing Japan to help defend the self-ruled island with the United States,” the Japan Times reported on July 6.
“If a major incident happened (over Taiwan), it’s safe to say it would be related to a situation threatening the survival (of Japan). If that is the case, Japan and the U.S. must defend Taiwan together,” Aso, who also sits on Japan’s National Security Council, said during a speech in Tokyo on July 5.
“Although Japan’s war-renouncing Constitution limits the use of its SDF [Self-Defense Forces], security laws passed in 2015 allow for its deployment outside of the country, including aiding an ally or friendly nation in the event of an attack that threatens Tokyo’s own security, a concept known as collective self-defense,” the Japan Times noted on July 6.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.