China hits out at Japan’s ‘erroneous’ defence white paper

“On the contrary, in recent years, the Japanese side has … moved further down the road of military expansion and followed certain major powers to form targeted blocs … bringing serious challenges to regional and global peace, security and stability.”

In an apparent swipe at the United States, he also accused “certain countries” of being driven by “their own self-interest” in sending ships and aircraft to the East and South China seas to “show off their military power”.

In the white paper, Japan labelled China as “an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge”.

The tone was in line with recent Japanese defence and national security strategy documents upgrading the military risks from China and effectively doubling the informal cap of its defence budget, decisions that were met with outrage in Beijing.

“China’s current external stance, military activities and other activities have become a matter of serious concern for Japan and the international community,” the white paper said, calling for joint responses with its allies and “like-minded” countries.

The document reaffirmed Tokyo’s goal of raising its military expenditure to 2 per cent of gross domestic product by 2027 and detailed a spending plan of 43.5 trillion Japanese yen (US$310 billion) over the next five years, ballooning from 17.2 trillion in the 2019-2023 financial period.

Strengthening the US-Japan alliance is one of the three major approaches to achieving Japan’s defence objectives, according to the document.

It highlighted the “imminent threat” posed by North Korea and said Russia’s military activities in the Indo-Pacific region, together with its strategic coordination with China, were of “strong security concern”.

“The repeated joint bomber flights and joint navigations of vessels by Russia and China are clearly intended for demonstration of force against Japan and are of grave concern from the perspective of the security of Japan and the region,” the report said.