Chinese government pressure stops Japanese students speaking on disarmament

Student nuclear disarmament speech canceled due to Chinese pressure: gov’t sources KYODO NEWS – Nov 16, 2017 – A speech by a Japanese student peace ambassador at an international disarmament conference in Geneva in August was canceled due to pressure from the Chinese government, Japanese government sources said on Thursday.

The speech by a representative of high school student ambassadors calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons had been delivered at every annual Conference on Disarmament since 2014.

But at the 2017 gathering, China objected, citing rules that allow only government officials to speak, according to the sources.

With Beijing having voiced concerns in the past that Tokyo highlighted the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to present itself as a victim of World War II, it is believed that China pressured for the speech to be quashed for the same reason.

At the past three editions of the conference, a student ambassador representative dispatched by a Japanese civic group gave a speech by registering as a member of the Japanese government delegation for one day.

Between February and May this year, China, a nuclear power and a member of the conference, urged Japan to cancel the planned speech. Its disarmament ambassador said the delegation could request that the high school student is removed and that Beijing will pursue the issue if Tokyo continues with the practice, according to the sources…… https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2017/11/9d14a00bdaf9-student-nuclear-disarmament-speech-canceled-due-to-chinese-pressure-govt-sources.html