China bars importation of seafood from Japan as Tokyo starts discharging radioactive water

China announced on Thursday that it will prohibit the importation of seafood from Japan. Japan has made the decision to discharge radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, so they are taking action.This new move has intensified the existing tension between China and Japan.

The release of this plan has caused a lot of disagreement among people. – A large number of consumers and several countries are highly opposed to it, with Beijing at the forefront of the disapproval. China expressed strong displeasure and condemned the operation initiated on Thursday afternoon as self-centered and reckless.

China’s customs department said it will no longer import any sea products from Japan. This could also affect other ocean products like sea salt and seaweed.

The action was taken to make sure that food in China does not become contaminated by radioactive materials from the water released by the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. This is important for the safety of Chinese people who consume the food.

Japan has been saying that it is safe to release the treated water and it needs to be done quickly to make room at the broken nuclear power plant.

The discharge started at 1 p. mThe local time was declared as midnight ET by the state-owned electricity company called Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

The company said it thinks it will release only about 200 or 210 cubic meters of cleaned wastewater. Starting on Friday, they will release 456 cubic meters of cleaned wastewater every day for 24 hours. In total, they will release 7,800 cubic meters over the course of 17 days.

TEPCO announced that they would stop the operation right away and look into any problems with the equipment or the level of diluted wastewater.

On Thursday, a boat will be sent to the harbor to collect samples of wastewater. These samples will be tested to make sure they meet international safety standards.

Japan experienced a very powerful earthquake and tsunami in 2011. This caused the water in the Fukushima nuclear plant to get contaminated with extremely dangerous radioactive substances. After that, they added more water to cool down the leftover fuel in the reactors. However, water from the ground and rain also got in, making the wastewater even more radioactive.

The idea to let the water go has been in progress for a long time. In 2019, officials said they were running out of room to keep the stuff and had no choice but to release it in a safe and very diluted form.

Some governments are in favor of Japan’s actions, but others strongly disagree. Many people in Asia are stockpiling salt and seafood because they are worried about the potential for pollution in the future.

The US supports Japan, and Taiwan also agrees that the amount of tritium being released should have only a small impact.

But China and the Pacific Islands have strongly expressed their disagreement, saying that the release could affect many countries in the region and around the world, and could possibly be harmful to people’s health and the ocean ecosystem.

Before China said they would stop selling seafood, they said that releasing the dirty water would cause problems for everyone and hurt future generations of people.

On Thursday, many Chinese people were very angry and sad about the release. They showed their feelings on social media, with over 800 million views on Weibo in just a few hours for a hashtag about it.

Some people agreed with the ban on seafood, but others wanted the authorities to do more. “One person suggested that we should stop allowing the sale of products from Japan. ”

Lots of people in China have mixed feelings about Japan. Despite many Chinese people liking Japanese products and culture, there are often calls to boycott everything Japanese when past conflicts resurface due to current disputes between the two countries.

In 2012, there were many protests against Japan in China’s cities because Japan made the decision to own some islands in the East China Sea that both Tokyo and Beijing said belonged to them. These protests became violent.

The complete ban on seafood and aquatic products from Japan now includes all areas affected by regulations in the past, including Fukushima and nine other regions. Earlier this week, Hong Kong said that it would not allow any food from certain parts of Japan to be brought into the city.

Mainland China and Hong Kong are Japan’s two largest markets for seafood exports. This could be a problem for Japan’s fishing industry.

Even though many people disagree, the Japanese authorities and their international supporters, like the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, believe that the release is not harmful.

Over time, the dirty water has been regularly cleaned to remove all the bad stuff, and then kept in containers. TEPCO says that a lot of the water is treated again.

When the dirty water is let go, it will mix with clean water, which will make it have only a tiny bit of radioactive stuff in it. It will go through a tunnel underwater that is about 1 kilometer away from the coast and into the Pacific Ocean.

Other organizations like the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency will watch the release of waste both during and after it happens.

The IAEA said that they have staff members in a newly-opened office in Fukushima. They will keep an eye on the situation there for many years.