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DW
7 days ago
- Business
- DW
Japan decries China threat after string of risky encounters – DW – 07/16/2025
Japan's defense officials have warned China's intensifying military activities could "seriously impact" its security, while also using their annual white paper to highlight the growing alliance of North Korea and Russia. The Japanese government called out China as posing "an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge" for Tokyo and its allies, using a notably sharper language than usual in its latest defense white paper. The annual document focuses on the current threats Japan is facing and the country's defense efforts. According to the 2025 paper, Beijing is expanding the areas in which it operates and becoming increasingly assertive. "International society is in a new crisis era and faces the biggest challenges since the end of World War II," Japanese officials said in the report issued this week, adding that China's "intensified military activities" are likely to continue and could "seriously impact Japan's security, which is a cause of grave concern." The document also highlighted the growing offensive capabilities of North Korea and its deepening security and economic alliance with Russia. "Russia has also been observed engaging in joint activities with China involving aircraft and vessels," according to Defense Minister Gen Nakatani. Analysts say the wording of this year's white paper reflects a string of military incidents in the last 12 months. "In the last year, there has been a lot more activity involving China, North Korea and Russia so it is no surprise that Japan is expressing its concerns more explicitly," said Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, an associate professor at Tokyo International University's Institute for International Strategy. He added that the security environment was "constantly changing." These changes are also illustrated by increasingly frequent confrontations between Chinese and Japanese troops. On July 7, a Japanese YS-11EB electronic surveillance aircraft operating in international air space over the East China Sea was intercepted by a Chinese JH-7 fighter-bomber, with the Chinese aircraft closing to within 30 meters (100 feet), according to the Japanese Defense Ministry. Another Chinese aircraft performed a nearly identical maneuver the following day. Through diplomatic and defense channels, Tokyo expressed "serious concerns" at the "abnormal approaches." Beijing refused to accept the complaint and accused Japan of "coming close and spying on China's normal activities." A similar incident took place in mid-June, when Chinese fighters operating from the aircraft carrier Shandong in the Pacific took up station around 45 meters from a Japanese P-3C reconnaissance aircraft for about 120 minutes. Over the last year, Chinese coast guard vessels and aircraft have been seen on hundreds of occasions operating in waters around the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, also known as the Diaoyu Islands, which Tokyo controls but China claims. A large Chinese buoy was also found inside the waters around the East China Sea archipelago. In August 2024, a Chinese military reconnaissance plane intruded into Japanese airspace over the Danjo Islands, part of Nagasaki Prefecture in the far southwest, causing Japanese fighters to scramble to intercept the aircraft. Tokyo also responded to the incident by summoning the charge d'affaires at the Chinese embassy to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "As well as these acts, China is being even more assertive in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait and that is a pattern that we have also seen increasing year-on-year," said Hinata-Yamaguchi. Beijing was quick to hit back against the white paper, with its Foreign Ministry saying the Japanese document "reflects a wrong perception of China, interferes in China's internal affairs and peddles the false 'China threat,'" according to Chinese paper. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian also reminded reporters in Beijing that 2025 marks the 80th anniversary "of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression." "We urge Japan to deeply reflect on its historical crime, draw lessons from history and stop finding pretexts for its military buildup by talking up 'tensions' in the neighborhood," he was quoted as saying by the state-run daily. The Japanese white paper did mention that Tokyo is on course to meet its goal of increasing defense spending to 2% of GDP by 2027, up from 1.8% at present. And while that figure is still significantly below the 5% that the US is presently demanding that its allies spend on defense, Hinata-Yamaguchi said the white paper also contains a message for Washington. "Reading through the document it is clear that there is new concern about the alliance," he said. "It is not stated overtly, but reading between the lines you can see that Tokyo is telling the US that it is doing everything that it can to take greater responsibility for its own defense and that it wants the US to have confidence in it as an ally and a partner." Yakov Zinberg, a professor of international relations at Tokyo's Kokushikan University, said the latest white paper also hints at deepening concerns that China is building military alliances with North Korea and, more importantly, Russia in Northeast Asia. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "China and Russia have carried out a number of maritime and aerial military exercises in the last couple of years and I think it is very likely that there will be more such joint drills in the future," he said, suggesting that the intention is to demonstrate the nations' combined power and deter Japan from a more active resistance. In one maritime drill last year, a joint fleet of Chinese and Russian warships circumnavigated the Japanese archipelago in what was widely interpreted as a show of force. "Japan is extremely worried about this US administration and its commitment to the security alliance because President [Donald] Trump is simply so unpredictable," Zinberg said.
South China Morning Post
06-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Fear factor: more Japanese worry war ‘likely' to break out in Asia, survey shows
Japanese people are increasingly fearful that war will break out in the Asia-Pacific region and that Japan will be dragged into the fighting, according to the results of a new survey, with rising tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea adding to public anxiety. Advertisement A public-opinion poll published by the Asahi newspaper on Thursday found that 62 per cent of Japanese respondents feared the nation would be caught up in a conflict in the coming years. That figure is a sharp increase from the 50 per cent who expressed similar concerns a decade ago. The survey, conducted nationwide between late February and early April, found that 12 per cent of Japanese believed war was 'very likely', while 50 per cent described it as 'likely'. Just 5 per cent responded that there was no chance of a war breaking out. 'This does not come as a surprise at all and there are a couple of primary reasons why people are becoming more concerned,' said Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, an associate professor at Tokyo International University's Institute for International Strategy. 'The first one is the activities of China and North Korea that we constantly hear about. It is clear that both countries have become militarily stronger and more authoritative in that time, and that will inevitably make people more concerned,' he told This Week in Asia. Advertisement 'The other factor is obviously the war in Ukraine. Even though it is taking place geographically a long way away, the war has had a serious psychological effect on Japanese people because it has shown them that a major conflict can break out at any time and anywhere.'
