China hopes IAEA won't endorse Japan's nuclear-contaminated water discharge plan: spokesperson

BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- China hopes that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Secretariat will act in an objective, professional and just manner, instead of endorsing Japan's nuclear-contaminated water discharge plan, a Chinese spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in response to a media report that the Japanese government obtained beforehand the draft report of the IAEA Task Force reviewing Japan's discharge of treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and raised substantive revision suggestions, exerting inappropriate influence on the conclusion of the final report. The media report also says that Japanese officials made political donations worth over 1 million euros to the staff of the IAEA Secretariat.

Mao said the report has come to China's serious attention.

"What's in that report has increased the world's concern over Japan's discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean," she said, adding that people have every reason to question the impartiality and objectivity of the final review report of the IAEA Task Force.

The Japanese government has a responsibility to give a credible explanation and the public also needs a response from the IAEA Secretariat, she said.

Mao said China's position on the discharge of the nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean is consistent. "The discharge affects the common interests of the international community. It is not Japan's domestic affair."

China urges Japan to take seriously both international and domestic concerns, stop forcibly proceeding with its ocean discharge plan, handle the nuclear-contaminated water in a science-based, safe and transparent way and subject itself to rigorous international oversight, said the spokesperson.

"We also hope that the IAEA Secretariat will act in an objective, professional and just manner, fully respect and adopt the views of experts of all parties in the Task Force and present a review report that can withstand the test of science and history, instead of endorsing Japan's discharge plan," Mao said, noting that the world is watching with eyes wide open.