China has lodged a diplomatic protest with Japan over its newly released defence white paper, accusing Tokyo of exaggerating the China threat and making inappropriate remarks about Taiwan.
Beijing objected to the report’s assessment that China’s military activities around Taiwan have intensified and that the balance of military power is increasingly shifting in China’s favour.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Taiwan is an internal matter and insisted Japan has no authority to comment on the issue. It also defended China’s military operations around the island as lawful and necessary.
Relations between the two countries have remained strained since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested last year that Japan’s Self Defence Forces could be deployed if a conflict over Taiwan threatened Japan’s security. China condemned those remarks at the time.
The white paper also argues that Japan’s expanding defence industry could contribute to economic growth while strengthening national security.
Beijing rejected that justification, accusing Japan of pursuing military expansion instead of reflecting on its wartime history. It urged Tokyo to halt what it described as a remilitarisation drive and called on the international community to discourage further defence buildup.
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