- Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel on Friday blamed China for banning Japanese seafood imports.
- “Financial coercion is the most persistent and destructive tool in their economic toolbox,” the former Chicago mayor and top Obama adviser said during a speech Friday in Tokyo.
- Emanuel also noted his belief that China’s intention is to isolate Japan economically.
US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel accused China on Friday of using “economic coercion” against Japan by banning Japanese seafood imports in response to the release of treated sewage from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, while Chinese vessels continue to fish in off Japan. coasts.
“Economic coercion is the most persistent and destructive tool in their economic toolbox,” Emanuel said in a speech on Friday in Tokyo, calling China’s ban on Japanese seafood the latest example.
China is the largest market for Japanese seafood and the ban has severely damaged Japan’s fishing industry.
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“China is currently engaged in fishing in Japan’s economic waters while at the same time engaging in the unilateral embargo on Japan’s fish,” Emanuel said. He said that China’s intention is to isolate Japan.
Japan began gradually releasing treated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima plant into the sea on August 24. Water has pooled at the factory since it was crippled by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. China immediately banned imports of Japanese seafood, accusing Tokyo of dumping “radiation-contaminated water” into the ocean.
Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel speaks to members of the press, Tokyo, Friday, September 22, 2023. (Kyodo News via AP)
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the release, if carried out as planned, would have negligible effects on the environment, marine life and human health.
Emanuel posted four photos on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday, which he said showed “Chinese boats fishing off Japan on September 15, following China’s seafood embargo from the same waters. #Fukushima.”
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Emanuel has also posted other comments about China that have been interpreted as critical, including one on Sept. 15 about Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who has not appeared in public for weeks amid speculation that he may have been placed under house arrest.
On August 8, Emanuel published that the makeup of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s cabinet “looks like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None,” noting the disappearances of Li, Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Chinese military commanders. missile power.
Four days later, he accused China of using artificial intelligence to spread false claims that US “weather weapons” caused the Maui fires and that the US military introduced COVID-19 to China.
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“I think you can have a mature relationship, have a dialogue, have a conversation, but when someone is offside … I think the most important thing to do is to be able to be honest and call misinformation misinformation,” he said the manufacture.
