Japan Warns of Rising Global Tension, Russia-China Arms Ties
By: Mari Yamaguchi (Military. com)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
TOKYO — Japan warned of escalating national security threats stemming from Russia's war on Ukraine and China's tensions with Taiwan in an annual defense paper issued Friday, as Japan tries to bolster its military capability and spending.
The annual defense white paper, approved by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet on Friday, highlights the need for Japan's military buildup to address security concerns and seeks to gain public support for a stronger military and increased budget, which Kishida's governing party aims to double in coming years.
The report comes months ahead of a revision to Japan's national security strategy that is expected to include a pre-emptive strike capability, which critics say would go beyond the limitations of Japan's pacifist constitution.
China, Russia and North Korea top Japan's security concerns in the 500-page report. Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, in a statement in the report, said the Indo-Pacific region is "at the center" of international strategic competition.
The report calls Russia's war on Ukraine a "serious violation of international law" and raises "concerns that the effects of such unilateral changes to the status quo by force may extend to the Indo-Pacific region."
Strategic competition between states has intensified amid a changing global power balance and is "further complicated by factors such as China's broad and rapid military buildup," the report said.
The paper doubled its contents on Taiwan from a previous edition last year. It raised concerns over Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its impact on Asia, possibly setting a precedent for what may happen between China and Taiwan.
The report noted growing tension between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan, as the U.S. continues to send warships through the Taiwan Strait and sell arms to Taipei, while Chinese warplanes have increasingly entered Taiwanese airspace.
China claims self-governing Taiwan as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.
Tokyo is also concerned about China's "relentless" unilateral attempts to change the status quo "by coercion" near the Japanese-controlled East China Sea island it calls Senkaku, which Beijing also claims and calls the Diaoyu.
China aims to build a "world-class military" and has been ramping up the fusion of military and civilian resources, the report said.
In a new chapter devoted to Russia's war on Ukraine, the report said that Russia's international isolation and fatigue from the war may increase the importance of Moscow's political and military cooperation with China.
The report said military cooperation between the two countries should be closely watched because it could have a "direct impact" on Japan's security.
China and Russia are stepping up joint operations and exercises involving their warships and military aircraft around Japan, while Beijing is threatening to use force over Taiwan and escalating regional tensions, Kishi said.
Beijing criticized the Japanese defense paper, saying it exaggerated China's military threat and interfered with China's internal policy with Taiwan, and repeated its claim over the disputed East China Sea islands.
"We urge Japan to stop hyping the security threats in its neighborhoods to justify its own military buildup," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.
The report comes as Kishida's government pledges to bolster Japan's military capability and budget under a revised national security strategy and basic defense guidelines that are planned for release later this year.
Kishida's governing Liberal Democratic Party has called for doubling Japan's military spending to 2% of its GDP, in line with the NATO standard, to about 10 trillion yen ($72.6 billion) over the next five years.
Recent media surveys showed the majority of the Japanese public support increased defense spending and deterence, including possessing pre-emptive strike capability.
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Japan is going to need to increase it's military spending a lot more than by just 2% and the US needs to install nuclear weapons at all our Pacific bases.
I doubt any of that will happen with the father of Hunter Biden in the White House.
And if they do, Russia needs to install nuclear weapons with hypersonic delivery systems in Cuba.
Then the JFK deal is off and we can invade Cuba
Invading Cuba should prove much easier than Grenada ...
You really need to tell the Chinese authorities to stop encroaching on the American military bases that surround them.
Leftist love affair with China is truly baffling.
Make my day.
LOL I'm sure that the CPC is still laughing at the freaked out panic that the nation with at least 800 military bases all around the world displayed when China and the Solomon Islands signed an agreement that COULD lead to it being one of the few military bases (I can count them on the fingers of one hand) that China has.
I wouldnt really worry too much about Cuba , after the soviet government collapsed there hasnt been really much substanial help from the russian government in the intrim to really prop up the cubans , they usually get treated like red headed step kids .
that and i doubt the cubans of today would allow such a weapon system to be based in their country . Todays cubans are different than the revolutionary cubans of the cold war , they remember they ended up sucking hind tit back then .
Not too baffling. It's called unmitigated greed.
Perhaps you should amend your statement to read military bases/facilities that you are aware of. Do you honestly think China and the CCP do not have hidden/secret bases throughout China and elsewhere. The US is not the only country to do so. In addition, the SOFA (Status Of Forces Agreement) stipulates that the host countries can ask the US to vacate the facilities leased to them at any time and they will.
I wasn't talking about domestic bases in the US or China, but ones on foreign lands. It's kind of hard to keep a military base secret in these days of spy satellites, don't you think?
In my 20 years of military service I saw some, and it is not as hard as you think.
How many decades ago?
Satellites are constantly evolving beyond our capabilities of the 70's
Does not matter how many decades ago. I am reminded Newton's 3rd law. For anything a potential adversary comes up with, a way will be found to counter it, whether to place facilities in plain sight, hide them underground, or underwater etc.
China is building a naval facility in Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand. It of course can be seen from space, but they and the Cambodians are lying about the purpose/use of the facilities under development.
China seriously wanted to get their hands on Cam Ranh Bay for a permanent naval facility for it's aircraft carriers and support ships. Probably pissed Xi off big time when Vietnam said no. China and the CCP are not too popular with Hanoi lately.
It would be pretty amazing if an underground or underwater military base could be constructed without the preparations being noticed by today's spy satellites, that could probably read a newspaper on the ground.
I never said it would be easy.
The key is to not build it to look like a military facility. You disguise it as a civilian commercial development/facility in plain sight. It does not have to be a large facility either.
LOL. It seems to me you don't have much faith in America's intelligence capability.
That you think leftists have a love affair with China is baffling. Up here the closest I can find is an admiration for Dr. Norman Bethune.
It wasn't always so, Hallux. For a long time in Canada Bethune was considered a pariah, but when the Canadian government decided it wanted to develop a beneficial trading arrangement with China they made his home in Gravenhurst, Ontario, a memorial that Chinese people come to visit. At one time I was going to do an article on Bethune but decided nobody would be interested anyway. In China there are statues of him and hospitals, streets and medical schools are named after Bethune (which the Chinese pronounce as "By-chewen"). Until a while ago Mao's memorial essay about Bethune was required to be learned by every Chinese student.
Norman Bethune Square in Montreal - All those pigeons are 'radical' commie lovin' leftists.
And of course there was the film, ' Bethune: The Making of a Hero' starring Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren.
I certainly have much more faith in US intelligence capability than I do China's.
Yeah, I've watched that film. Instruments that Bethune invented for thoracic surgery are still being used today, and in Spain for the Spanish Civil War he invented and used a moveable truck based blood bank to service wounded soldiers.
I can't argue with that, I'm sure you're right.
was just reading this am about japan funding its first air craft carrier since WW2
as for nukes ? who says the US doesnt already have them either on site or in the area ?
They already exist and are in service. Google Izumo class ships of the JMSDF. They are the JS Izumo and the JS Kaga.
Technically those are multipurpose destroyers with the capability of being helicopter carriers
for use in ASW.
There are no catapults or trap wires needed for launching or catching jet fighters.
Currently they could in theory be used with the F35 STOVL or Ospreys V22
The term multi purpose destroyers are a matter of semantics in the Japanese constitution when the US said post war Japan was not allowed aircraft carriers. It was also geared toward appeasing China. The Kaga started conversion of the flight deck in March of this year to allow use of the F-35B VSTOL variant and the Izumo will be next. Once the JSDF get's more MV-22's delivered, they will be used aboard ship as well.
The CCP may be too busy crushing its own citizens, again:
China really needs a bunch of Rittenhouses to help control those protests "The American Way". Oh yeah, 87 new covid cases in China today - how are you doing in America with that?
that’s some deflection. The ccp steals its citizens money and you attack America. Par for the course.
But since you asked, The CCP is more than capable of machine gunning its own citizens and power washing their remains down sewer grates without the help of anyone. They have practice!
how are you doing in America with that?
not locked down and being sacrificed to a crazy zero Covid policy that has zero chance of working, thanks for asking.
I deflected? LOL What's YOUR comment called? I shouldn't have replied and just flagged it for taunting instead of replying to it.
87 people went to jail
And people really expect the CCP to admit realistic figures?
LOL. I would be willing to bet you've never stepped one foot into China because your comment stinks with ignorance about China and the Chinese people. I've been living in China for the past 16 years and I can say that if I can extrapolate to the vast majority of Chinese people from the perhaps thousands I've come to know and come in contact with the Chinese people are generally very happy with their government, a lot happier than a huge number of Americans are with theirs.
Lol, they don't have a choice.
And I suppose you know the Chinese people better than I do, eh?
I know that you take offense to Winnie the Poo, and that is all I need to know about Chinese tolerance.