China’s military mouthpiece on Monday warned that the weapons and operational methods seen in Japan’s largest annual live-fire drill symbolised the Self-Defence Force’s acceleration towards offensive capabilities as part of its military expansion.
“Japan’s military forces will become more offensive, more dangerous and more oriented towards actual combat. Japan will race forward on the road of ‘re-militarisation’,” according to the article in PLA Daily.
The warning came as tensions between Beijing and Tokyo remain high months after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment that her country could act militarily if a conflict were to break out in the Taiwan Strait.
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Beijing slammed Takaichi’s comment in November as “seriously damaging bilateral ties and challenging [the] post-war international order”.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary.
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Most countries, including Japan and the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-ruled island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
