Japan's defense report expresses strong concern over Chinese military activities
The annual report was presented to a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
It describes China's increased military activities, such as the first-ever intrusion of Japan's airspace by a Chinese military aircraft in August last year.
It also says a Chinese aircraft carrier entered Japan's contiguous zone just outside Japanese territorial waters in September that year.
On North Korea, the white paper notes that Pyongyang is stepping up military cooperation with Moscow.
It says the North provides ballistic missiles and other weapons to Russia, and that the dispatch of North Korean troops to join Russians in fighting could further exacerbate the situation in Ukraine.
The white paper stresses the need to drastically strengthen Japan's defense capabilities amid these circumstances.
It says that this fiscal year the defense ministry will start deploying stand-off missiles that can strike targets from outside enemy range. It says they will be part of the country's counterstrike capabilities.
The ministry also plans to develop a system to enable a satellite constellation, or a number of small satellites linked together, to collect target information.
In March, the ministry launched the Joint Operations Command to unify the leadership of the Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces.
The report says the Joint Operations Command enables the SDF to always make quick decisions and responses.
It also says a basic plan has been drawn up to hike wages and improve living conditions of SDF personnel, as a shortage of new recruits is becoming a problem. The ministry also plans to raise the retirement age for SDF members.
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Following a post in X by the Chinese ambassador to Israel, Xiao Junzheng, who repeated the statement, Toporosvsky responded that he would be honored to visit China, but 'no one from China found time to talk to me.' He added that he 'always remember who stands with Israel and who support[s] our enemies.' To add insult to injury, Taiwan's Secretary-General of the National Security Council (and former foreign minister) Joseph Wu trolled Xiao on X, writing: 'Hey dude, you talk way too much on @X. Let me sum it up for you: 'I don't respect your freedom & sovereignty. I support terrorism & stand with #Israel's enemies. BTW, the universe belongs to #China.'' For longtime observers of China-Israel-Taiwan triangular relations, this incident is rather common. Indeed, China has long objected to Israeli parliamentary delegations visiting Taiwan, and similar condemnations have been issued in the past. Already in 2006, during the first parliamentary visit since the establishment of the friendship group, the Chinese ambassador condemned the visit and threatened that 'if the event happens again, that matter will be viewed as critical.' In fact, it is not even the first time that Taiwan's Wu has something to say in the context of China-Israel relations. In a 2022 interview with Israel's biggest English-language media outlet, The Jerusalem Post, Wu remarked: 'So don't worry about China getting upset at you. When they get upset at you, that means you are doing something right.' What makes the latest incident puzzling, however, is the timing. Toporovsky's visit to Taiwan occurred in April, yet Beijing's reaction came only now in July. Even more striking is that this rhetoric came on the heels of what appeared to be a Chinese charm offensive in Israel. Since the appointment of Xiao Junzheng as ambassador in late 2024, it seems that the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Xiao have taken some steps to improve Beijing's image in Israel. These include softer public messaging over the Gaza war, increased outreach to Israeli think tanks and journalists, and a more balanced approach to the Palestinian conflict, as well as the Israel-Iran war, in Chinese state media. The goal seemed to be to stabilize ties after a period of deterioration that had begun even before the October 7 Hamas attack, arguably dating back to Trump's first term and his administration's efforts to pressure Israel to reduce Chinese access to sensitive technologies and infrastructure. This makes the delayed condemnation appear out of step with Beijing's recent approach. If China is trying to build goodwill, why would it publicly revive an issue from over two months ago? Several explanations may help make sense of this sudden diplomatic shift. First, Beijing may be sending a calibrated warning to Israel not to deepen its ties with Taiwan, even symbolically. Toporovsky himself praised Taiwan's democracy, spoke of the importance of strengthening bilateral ties, and in a recent tweet expressed concern over reports about Chinese surveillance on Taiwan's then-vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim during her trip to Prague. The embassy's message served to reiterate that this type of engagement will not go unnoticed. At the same time, the statement targeted Taipei as well. As President Lai Ching-te seeks to expand Taiwan's international space, China is actively working to limit it. Condemning Israeli MKs acts as a signal to other countries: even informal parliamentary exchanges will draw pushback. Second, the timing may be tied to China's strategic deepening of ties with Iran. Recently, media reports have surfaced indicating that Beijing may supply Tehran with HQ-9B air defense systems and J-10C fighter jets, two advanced systems that could significantly improve Iran's military capabilities. If these transfers proceed, they would mark a notable escalation in China's role in regional military affairs and a direct challenge to Israeli (as well as U.S.) security interests. By reviving the Taiwan issue, Beijing may be seeking to preempt Israeli criticism or shift the diplomatic narrative, portraying Israel as the actor causing friction. In this view, the Taiwan condemnation becomes a form of strategic hedging: asserting pressure on one front while deflecting attention from another. Third, the statement could also reflect growing Chinese frustration over Israel's shifting China policy. Israel has come under increasing U.S. pressure to reduce its economic and technological exposure to China. 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As the Middle East slides back into open conflict, U.S. regional dominance reasserts itself, and economic incentives lose their leverage, China appears increasingly unsure of how to position itself. Symbolic rebukes, charm offensives, and military hedging may buy time, but they do not add up to a coherent regional strategy. In this context, deciphering Beijing's intentions has become more difficult than ever – not because its strategy is subtle or sophisticated, but because it increasingly lacks the consistency and clarity it once projected.
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Putin, unfazed by Trump, will fight on and could take more of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace, unfazed by U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of tougher sanctions, and his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance, three sources close to the Kremlin said. Putin, who ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in country's east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops, believes Russia's economy and its military are strong enough to weather any additional Western measures, the sources said. Trump on Monday expressed frustration with Putin's refusal to agree a ceasefire and announced a wave of weapons supplies to Ukraine, including Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. He also threatened further sanctions on Russia unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days. The three Russian sources, familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking, said Putin will not stop the war under pressure from the West and believes Russia — which has survived the toughest sanctions imposed by the West — can endure further economic hardship, including threatened U.S. tariffs targeting buyers of Russian oil. "Putin thinks no one has seriously engaged with him on the details of peace in Ukraine — including the Americans — so he will continue until he gets what he wants," one of the sources said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. Despite several telephone calls between Trump and Putin, and visits to Russia by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, the Russian leader believes there have not been detailed discussions of the basis for a peace plan, the source said. "Putin values the relationship with Trump and had good discussions with Witkoff, but the interests of Russia come above all else," the person added. 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However, a second source familiar with Kremlin thinking said that Putin considered Moscow's goals far more important than any potential economic losses from Western pressure, and he was not concerned by U.S. threats to impose tariffs on China and India for buying Russian oil. Two of the sources said that Russia has the upper hand on the battlefield and its economy, geared toward war, is exceeding the production of the U.S.-led NATO alliance in key munitions, like artillery shells. Russia, which already controls nearly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has advanced some 1,415 square kilometers in the past three months, according to data from the DeepStateMap, an open-source intelligence map of the conflict. "Appetite comes with eating," the first source said, meaning that Putin could seek more territory unless the war was stopped. The two other sources independently confirmed the same. Russia currently controls Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, plus all of the eastern region of Luhansk, more than 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Putin's public position is that those first five regions — Crimea and the four regions of eastern Ukraine — are now part of Russia and Kyiv must withdraw before there can be peace. Putin could fight on until Ukraine's defenses collapse and widen his territorial ambitions to include more of Ukraine, the sources said. "Russia will act based on Ukraine's weakness," the third source said, adding that Moscow might halt its offensive after conquering the four eastern regions of Ukraine if it encounters stiff resistance. "But if it falls, there will be an even greater conquest of Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Kharkiv." Zelenskyy has said Russia's summer offensive is not going as successfully as Moscow had hoped. His top brass, who acknowledge that Russian forces outnumber Ukraine's, say Kyiv's troops are holding the line and forcing Russia to pay a heavy price for its gains. The United States says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war, Europe's deadliest conflict since the Second World War. Neither Russia nor Ukraine give full figures for their losses, and Moscow dismisses Western estimates as propaganda. Trump, since returning to the White House in January after promising a swift end to the war, has sought to repair ties with Russia, speaking at least six times by telephone with Putin. On Monday, he said the Russian leader was not "an assassin, but he's a tough guy." In an abrupt break from his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, Trump's administration has cast the war as a deadly proxy conflict between Russia and the United States, withdrawn support for Ukraine joining NATO and floated the idea of recognizing Russia's annexation of Crimea. Putin portrays the war as a watershed moment in Moscow's relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence, including Ukraine and Georgia. Putin has yet to accept a proposal from Trump for an unconditional ceasefire, which was quickly endorsed by Kyiv. Recent days have seen Russia use hundreds of drones to attack Ukrainian cities. However, Trump told the BBC in an interview published on Tuesday that he was not done with Putin and that a Ukraine deal remained on the cards. The first source rejected Trump's assertion last week that Putin had thrown "bulls---" around, saying there had been a failure to transform positive talks with Witkoff into a substantive discussion on the basis for peace. A White House official said on Monday Trump was considering 100% tariffs on Russian goods as well as secondary sanctions on other countries that buy its exports as a means to drive Moscow to the negotiating table. China and India are the biggest buyers of crude. Despite existing sanctions and the cost of fighting Europe's biggest conflict since World War II, Russia's $2 trillion economy has performed far better than many in Russia or the West expected. The economic ministry forecasts a slowdown to 2.5% annual growth in 2025 from 4.3% last year. The second person said that Trump had little leverage over Putin and suggested that even if Washington imposed tariffs on the purchasers of Russian crude then Moscow would still find a way to sell it to world markets. "Putin understands that Trump is an unpredictable person who may do unpleasant things but he is maneuvering to avoid irritating him too much," the source said. Looking ahead, one of the sources said there was likely to be an escalation of the crisis in coming months, and underscored the dangers of tensions between the world's two largest nuclear powers. And, he predicted, the war would continue.
