(ECNS) -- As China marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, the international community must guard against and firmly thwart any attempt to revive militarism, jointly uphold the post-WWII international order and safeguard world peace, said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning on Wednesday.

At the regular press conference, a journalist pointed out that many analysts have noted that Sanae Takaichi is the first Japanese prime minister to explicitly describe a hypothetical scenario concerning Taiwan as a "survival-threatening situation." It implies that Japan could exercise the right of "collective self-defense" if such a situation occurs, which makes Japan's armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait a possibility, which would be unacceptable to China, given its red line, the journalist said.

In response, Mao said the right of collective self-defense set forth in the UN Charter is created to safeguard the collective security of the international community and prevent the revival of fascist forces. Japan has been restricted from exercising this right since the end of World War II. The Potsdam Proclamation clearly states that Japan should not "re-arm."

"Japan commits in its Constitution to ‘forever renouncing war and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes' and established the exclusively defense-oriented principle. Together they codified Japan's obligations as a defeated country," she said.

The spokesperson stressed that a brief look at history will show that to use "survival-threatening situation" and "self-defense" as a pretext is a go-to tactic for Japanese militarism to launch aggression.

In 1931, Japan called whether it could seize Manchuria as "survival-threatening," and used that as a pretext to carry out the September 18th Incident and invaded and occupied Northeast China, she added. Japan later claimed that to defend "the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" was an existential battle for Japan, enlarging its war of aggression to the entire Asia. Whether to attack Pearl Harbor was also deemed as "survival-threatening" to Japan, which ignited the Pacific War.

The spokesperson reaffirmed that the historical tragedy must not repeat itself.

(By Evelyn）