Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian’s Regular Press Conference on March 25, 2026

Source：www.fmprc.gov.cn  

Shenzhen TV: It was reported that Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on March 24 reviewed high school textbooks to be used from 2027. Some textbooks include descriptions suggesting there was no coercion regarding comfort women and forced labor, and asserts that Diaoyu Dao is “Japan’s inherent territory.” What is China’s comment?

Lin Jian: To obscure historical facts, play down Japan’s war crimes and seek to evade responsibility by playing on words when reviewing textbooks is Japan’s go-to tactic to deny and distort its history of aggression. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this, and has lodged serious protests with the Japanese side.

Japan has yet to make a clean break with militarism after the war, and its Yasukuni war shrine still honors 14 Class-A war criminals. Forcibly recruiting comfort women and labor is a serious crime against humanity that Japanese militarists committed during their aggression and expansion. These are historical facts clear to the whole world and backed by solid evidence. There’s no way they can be denied.

Let me stress that Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands have been China’s territory since ancient times, over which China has indisputable sovereignty. No matter what small tricks the Japanese side uses regarding textbooks, they cannot change the fact that Diaoyu Dao belongs to China. Any attempt to undermine China’s territorial sovereignty is futile.

China noted that the ROK has also lodged serious démarches with the Japanese side to protest against contents about Dokdo and comfort women in the textbooks. This shows that Japanese far-right forces’ moves of distorting history and misleading Japanese people in their view of history have triggered high alert and strong indignation from the international community, including its Asian neighbors. We seriously urge the Japanese side to look history in the eye, make a clean break with militarism, allow the young generation in Japan to know the true history, properly handle historical issues in a responsible attitude, and avoid further losing the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community.