Pentagon No. 3 praises Japan defense report, but vows to make alliance more 'equitable'
The annual report, released Tuesday, says the international community has entered 'a new era of crisis,' with China representing Japan's 'greatest strategic challenge' and U.S. President Donald Trump's policies expected to 'significantly impact' the Indo-Pacific region.
U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby on Tuesday labeled the report 'an important, clear-eyed strategic assessment from our close ally Japan.'
Colby's endorsement, however, came with the stipulation that the U.S. would aim to focus on the shifting tide in the Indo-Pacific by seeking a more 'equitable' balance in its alliance with Japan.
'We at DOD stand ready to work closely with Tokyo to adjust to this new era and to follow President Trump's guidance to make our alliances stronger, more equitable, and thus sustainable,' Colby wrote on X.
Trump has a long history of railing against the U.S.-Japan alliance, saying in recent months that the partnership is unfair and 'one-sided' — remarks that echoed views from his first term, when he demanded Tokyo cough up more cash or risk the removal of American troops.
Colby has carried out these demands, initially saying during a March confirmation hearing that Japan 'should be spending at least 3%' of its gross domestic product on defense 'as soon as possible.' Last month, however, the Pentagon said it had set a 'global standard' for Japan and other U.S. allies to spend 5% of GDP on defense.
Ostensibly pacifist Japan has in recent years undertaken a dramatic transformation of its security policy, including a five-year plan to ramp up defense spending to 2% of GDP by 2027.
Japan's defense white paper alluded to concerns over potential policy shifts under Trump, saying that 'U.S. actions will significantly impact' the regional security environment 'and will require continued attention.'
The Shandong, China's first domestically built aircraft carrier, sits anchored after arriving in Hong Kong on July 3. |
AFP-JIJI
China, meanwhile, lashed out at the attention it received in the report.
'The new version of the defense white paper holds a wrong perception of China, unreasonably interferes in China's internal affairs and hypes up the so-called China threat,' Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian told a news conference Tuesday. 'China expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to this, and has lodged solemn representations with Japan.'
The white paper singles out China as 'the greatest strategic challenge' Tokyo has ever faced, pointing to the Chinese military's stepped-up 'throughout areas surrounding Japan.'
It cites several recent incidents, including the China Coast Guard's deployment of a helicopter in Japan's territorial airspace around the Japanese-controlled, Chinese-claimed Senkakus in May. The white paper also notes a Chinese military aircraft's incursion into Japanese airspace last August and a Chinese aircraft carrier sailing close to Japan's territorial waters the following month — both firsts.
Beijing has continued to chip away at precedent in recent months, dispatching both of its active aircraft carriers deep into the western Pacific last month and sending its warplanes near Japanese aircraft multiple times in recent weeks, moves that Tokyo said risked collisions.
Following the latest close encounter — during which Chinese JH-7 fighter-bombers came within 30 meters of the Japanese YS-11EB electronic intelligence aircraft — Beijing blamed Tokyo, calling 'close-in reconnaissance and harassment' by the Japanese side 'the root cause' of the incidents.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani speaks during a news conference at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Tuesday. |
JIJI
Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Tuesday that the Air Self-Defense Force had acted appropriately in conducting 'regular surveillance activities,' calling the Chinese allegations that the ASDF aircraft's flights were to blame 'completely unfounded.'
Lin disputed that China's larger military moves were problematic, repeating Beijing's line that it adheres to 'the path of peaceful development and pursues a defensive national defense policy.'
'Its national defense construction and military activities are legitimate and reasonable, and its military cooperation with other countries is in line with international law and international practice,' he said.
Lin accused Tokyo of using the white paper — which also offers a detailed description of progress Japan has made in strengthening its own defenses — to justify its decision to loosen many of the postwar shackles on its military in recent years.
Noting that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Lin urged Japan to 'deeply reflect' on its role in the war 'and stop looking for pretexts for its military expansion by exaggerating 'tensions in the surrounding areas.''
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
an hour ago
- Japan Today
China says trade jumped in July, beating forecasts
China and the United States agreed in Stockholm last month to hold further on extending their tariff truce China's exports beat expectations and rose 7.2 percent year-on-year in July, official data showed Thursday, as overseas shipments buoyed its struggling economy even as it navigated a shaky trade war truce with the United States. The two economic superpowers agreed in Stockholm last month to hold further talks on extending the tariff truce. That deal has temporarily set fresh U.S. duties on Chinese goods at 30 percent, while Beijing's levies on U.S. goods stand at 10 percent. The accord -- initially agreed in Geneva in May -- brought down triple-digit tariffs each side had imposed on the other after Donald Trump launched his "Liberation Day" levies on April 2. The 90-day truce is set to end on August 12, when the original duties could snap back. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said following the Stockholm talks that Trump would have the "final say" on any extension of a tariffs truce between Washington and Beijing. Higher tariffs on dozens of trading partners -- including a blistering 35 percent on Canada -- came into force Thursday as Trump seeks to reshape global trade to benefit the U.S. economy. He has also threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on semiconductor imports. Thursday's data showing an increase in China's overseas shipments last month outpaced a Bloomberg forecast of 5.6 percent. But the figures also showed that China's exports to the United States, its largest trading partner, continued to fall, sinking 6.1 percent from the previous month. And imports -- a key gauge of struggling domestic demand -- jumped 4.1 percent year-on-year in July, compared with a Bloomberg forecast of a one-percent fall. Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said the data showed "exports supported the economy strongly so far this year". "Export growth may slow in coming months, as the front loading of exports due to US tariffs fades away," he said. "The big question is how much China's exports will slow and how it would spill over to the rest of the economy." Beijing has said an official goal of around five percent growth this year. But it has struggled to maintain a strong economic recovery from the pandemic, as it fights a debt crisis in its massive property sector, chronically low consumption and elevated youth unemployment. Factory output shrank more than expected in July, data showed last week. © 2025 AFP
The Diplomat
2 hours ago
- The Diplomat
Seoul's Strategic Dilemma: Navigating a High-Stakes Summit With Trump
When Donald Trump and Lee Jae-myung meet, the very definition of the 70-year-old South Korea-U.S. alliance will be on the table. 'Fasten your seat belt. We are going through turbulence.' This was the stark metaphor South Korea's new foreign minister, Cho Hyun, offered in a recent interview to describe the global security environment. His words aptly capture the challenge facing Seoul as President Lee Jae-myung prepares for his first summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, expected later this month. Cho's diplomatic debut in Washington – marked by a crucial meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio – has set the stage for a high-stakes encounter. With a contentious trade deal now settled, the focus has pivoted entirely to the more perilous terrain of defense and security, where the very definition of the 70-year-old South Korea-U.S. alliance is on the table. The summit's agenda will be driven by Trump's transactional worldview, forcing the new progressive administration in Seoul to navigate a set of formidable U.S. demands. The central thesis of the summit is clear: the South Korea-U.S. alliance must now prove its 'return on investment' to a skeptical Washington. This will test Lee's statesmanship as he attempts to secure ironclad U.S. security guarantees against North Korea while parrying a relentless U.S. push for Seoul to 'pay up and pivot' toward confronting China – a dilemma starkly reflected in his foreign minister's recent tightrope diplomacy and Beijing's wary response. Washington's New Calculus: The Price of a 'Modernized' Alliance Trump's primary demands are expected to be as direct as they are challenging, coalescing around two core pillars: a radical increase in financial contributions and a strategic pivot toward countering China, all packaged under the diplomatic framework of 'alliance modernization.' The 'pay up' component is familiar ground. Drawing from the playbook of his first term, Trump is widely expected to open negotiations over the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) with an astronomical figure to anchor the conversation. More strategically significant, however, is the 'pivot.' This push is being championed by key administration figures like Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, a principal architect of the 'America First' security strategy. In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Colby praised South Korea as a 'role model' for its defense spending and willingness to take the lead against North Korean threats, yet simultaneously emphasized that the two allies are 'closely aligned on the need to modernize the alliance.' For Colby and this school of strategists, 'modernization' means rectifying what they see as a strategic misallocation of resources. As one senior South Korean official recently acknowledged, this means there 'may be changes to the role and character of USFK.' This 'modernization' is not about minor adjustments. It is a fundamental effort to repurpose U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), moving beyond its traditional mission of deterring North Korea to endow it with the 'strategic flexibility' for regional contingencies aimed at China. This could be achieved not by altering the 28,500 statutory troop cap, but by changing the mission sets of those forces or withholding rotational deployments, a move potentially justified under broad interpretations of the 1953 Mutual Defense Treaty. The official readout from the Cho-Rubio meeting confirmed this is not mere speculation. It explicitly noted that both sides 'emphasized that maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait was an indispensable element' of international security and discussed the importance of advancing 'U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral cooperation.' Seoul's High-Wire Act: Defending Sovereignty and Security Faced with this immense pressure, the Lee administration must perform a delicate balancing act. Cho's Washington Post interview provided a masterclass in this high-wire diplomacy. He acknowledged China as a 'challenge' and 'competitor' but immediately stressed the 'need for engaging China, because simply trying to block China will not be as effective as we want.' This careful phrasing, however, was interpreted in Beijing as 'ambivalence,' with Chinese state-affiliated media warning Seoul not to be used as leverage by a 'third party.' This exchange vividly illustrates the bind Seoul is in: every statement intended to reassure Washington is scrutinized in Beijing, and vice-versa. This strategic divergence exposes underlying fault lines in the alliance. As noted by analysts in Seoul, the official U.S. call for the 'complete denuclearization of the DPRK' or North Korea – a phrase included in the State Department readout – differs subtly but significantly from the traditional preference of South Korean progressive governments for 'denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,' a broader formulation designed to create space for dialogue with Pyongyang. To counter Washington's pressure, Lee will arrive with his own non-negotiable demands. The top priority will be securing an ironclad, unambiguous reaffirmation of U.S. extended deterrence, including the nuclear umbrella. With North Korea's deepening military cooperation with Russia, any ambiguity in the U.S. commitment is an existential threat. Alongside this, South Korea's president will push for progress on the transfer of wartime military operational control (OPCON). This long-standing goal, domestically framed as a matter of military sovereignty, inherently resonates with the U.S. administration's burden-sharing narrative by demonstrating Seoul's commitment to greater self-reliance. Redefining Success in a Transactional World Ultimately, the stakes of this summit are monumental, both for Lee's government and for the future of Northeast Asian security. His credibility as a statesman is on the line as he navigates between Trump's demands, China's red lines, and a deeply polarized domestic public still emerging from a major political crisis. Success, therefore, will not be defined by a grand bargain or a transformative joint vision. Rather, it will be measured by the skillful management of risk and the preservation of core interests. A successful outcome for Lee would be returning to Seoul having secured a manageable, multiyear SMA deal, a joint statement that reaffirms the alliance's strength without explicitly committing USFK to an anti-China mission, and a strong public reaffirmation from Trump on extended deterrence and troop levels. The primary criterion is to leave Washington with the South Korea-U.S. alliance intact, but without having started a new crisis with either Washington or Beijing. In the turbulent world of transactional diplomacy, a calm news cycle following the summit would be the clearest sign of victory.
Japan Today
2 hours ago
- Japan Today
Trump demands new U.S. census as redistricting war spreads
Republicans hope to gain as many as five more House seats by reworking the legislative map in Texas U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered officials to work on a new census excluding undocumented immigrants, as the White House presses Republican states to draw more favorable voter maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Trump called for a "new and highly accurate" census that he wanted based on unspecified "modern day facts and figures" gleaned from the 2024 election. "People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS," he said in the social media post. The U.S. Constitution since 1790 has required a census every 10 years that counts the "whole number of persons in each state" -- including people in the country illegally. The next one is not due until 2030, although preparations for the enormous task are already underway. Trump did not make clear if he was referring to the regularly scheduled population count or if he wanted a special survey undertaken earlier. The census is used to determine how many members of Congress are elected from each state, and the Pew Research Center estimates that ignoring unauthorized migrants in 2020 would have deprived California, Florida and Texas of one House seat each. It is also used for apportioning votes in the state-by-state "electoral college" that decides presidential elections and for allocating trillions of dollars in federal funding. Trump attempted similar moves in his first term, including the addition of a citizenship question to the census, but was blocked by the Supreme Court. The justices declined to rule on whether the millions of people in the country without legal status should be excluded. Trump's call for a new census comes with state-level lawmakers and officials in Texas locking horns over a new electoral map that would likely net Republicans up to five extra House seats in 2026. More than 50 Texas Democratic lawmakers have fled to multiple Democratic states in an effort to block the passage of the proposed blueprint during a special legislative session. Texas Republicans have threatened to arrest them, and U.S. Senator John Cornyn announced he had successfully petitioned the FBI to help state and local law enforcement locate them. Republican governors in several other states are exploring new maps in a bid to protect the party's razor-thin majority in the House, which would flip next year with three Democratic gains. Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to visit Indiana on Thursday to discuss redistricting with Governor Mike Braun and press local Republicans to eke out another seat for the party. Politico reported that Republicans could draw as many as 10 new seats ahead of the midterms and are targeting Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. In Indiana, Braun said any redistricting conversation would be "exploratory," as the state's maps were drawn fairly in 2021, Indianapolis public broadcaster WFYI reported. Democrats have vowed to retaliate with their own proposals, possibly in New York and California, the country's largest states. Texas legislators were evacuated from their suburban Chicago hotel on Wednesday morning following an unspecified threat. Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker authorized state police to guard the group, and insisted that the FBI -- which investigates federal crime -- and Texas authorities had no power to return them. "They're all allowed to visit Chicago or Illinois and take in the great view of our lake and our city and enjoy the the the great restaurants that we have," he told the leftist MeidasTouch podcast. "But they won't be taking anybody home with them or away from the state. We are protecting those Texas House Democrats, and they are protecting, frankly, the entire country, in what they do." © 2025 AFP
