Japan views China as longer-term and more serious threat than nuclear-armed North Korea
Tokyo:
Japan’s annual defense review accuses China of claiming land claims amid the coronavirus pandemic and suspects Beijing of spreading propaganda and misinformation by providing medical aid to countries struggling with the disease.
China “continues to try to change the status quo in the East China Sea and the South China Sea,” Japan said in the defense white paper approved Tuesday by the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The white paper describes “relentless” intrusions into the waters around a group of islets claimed by the two nations in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
In the South China Sea, he said Beijing is asserting land claims by establishing administrative districts around the disputed islands that have forced countries distracted by the virus epidemic to react.
Japan’s critics of China echo US comments at a time when regional tension was mounting as Beijing and Washtington held separate military exercises in the resource-rich South China Sea and ties between the two largest economies in the world were deteriorating.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday rejected China’s disputed claims about offshore resources in most of the South China Sea, saying they were “completely illegal”.
Beijing insists that its intentions in the waterway, through which about $ 3 trillion in world trade flows through each year, are peaceful.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China had filed a complaint regarding the review.
“The white paper on the defense of Japan is full of bias and false information,” he said in a daily briefing. “He is trying to do everything he can to increase the so-called Chinese threat.”
Japan views China as a longer-term and more serious threat than North Korea, which has nuclear weapons. Beijing now spends four times more than Tokyo on defense because it is building a large modern army.
The defense review of Japan also indicated that China appeared to be responsible for the “propaganda” and “misinformation” amidst the “social uncertainty and confusion” caused by the virus epidemic.
Such misinformation included online claims that the virus had been introduced to China by a US military or that Chinese herbal remedies could treat the disease, said a defense ministry official during a briefing.
Japan added that other threats to Japan include the development by North Korea of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and a resumption of Russian military activities in the skies and waters around Japan, sometimes during joint exercises with China.
For an interactive graphic to monitor the global spread of coronaviruses, click: https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7
(Report by Tim Kelly; Additional report by Yew Lun Tian; Edition by Michael Perry and Clarence Fernandez)
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
