China slams Japan's new guidelines on defense
Source: Agencies |
December 18, 2010, Saturday
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CHINA has slammed Japan's new defense guidelines, which focus on China, as "irresponsible."
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China was a force for peace and development in Asia and threatened no one.
She accused Japan of falsely claiming to represent international opinion and said no country had the right to make irresponsible comments concerning China's development.
The Japanese guidelines announced yesterday said Tokyo should refocus its defense strategy on the rise of China and not on the Cold War threat of Russia.
The guidelines also called for a stronger alliance with the United States - Japan's biggest ally - and expanded security networks with partners such as South Korea and Australia.
Japan will acquire new submarines and fighter jets, upgrade its missile defense capabilities and make its ground forces more mobile so that they can quickly respond to emergencies in southwest Japan.
While Japan has forces for self-defense, its pacifist constitution, drafted by the US after Japan's defeat in World War II, bar it from sending troops into combat overseas.
The guidelines painted China as a "bigger threat" than Russia and said Japan is shifting its defense emphasis from the northern island of Hokkaido to islands in the south.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said the plan will help Japan adapt to a "new, complex security environment."
The Japan-US alliance remains "indispensable" to Japan's security, the statement said, calling for stronger cooperation between Japanese and the 47,000 US armed forces based in Japan.
But it also noted a relative decline of America's strength and the rise of emerging countries such as China and India. Japan, meanwhile, should pursue its own efforts to enhance missile defense capabilities to protect itself from threats by China and North Korea, it said.
The new strategy document also said North Korea's military activity is a "pressing and serious destabilizing factor" for Japan and causes grave problems for international nonproliferation efforts.
"The Korean Peninsula and North Korea are imminent and concrete threats to Japan, while China is more of a medium-term threat," said Hideshi Takesada, executive director at Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China was a force for peace and development in Asia and threatened no one.
She accused Japan of falsely claiming to represent international opinion and said no country had the right to make irresponsible comments concerning China's development.
The Japanese guidelines announced yesterday said Tokyo should refocus its defense strategy on the rise of China and not on the Cold War threat of Russia.
The guidelines also called for a stronger alliance with the United States - Japan's biggest ally - and expanded security networks with partners such as South Korea and Australia.
Japan will acquire new submarines and fighter jets, upgrade its missile defense capabilities and make its ground forces more mobile so that they can quickly respond to emergencies in southwest Japan.
While Japan has forces for self-defense, its pacifist constitution, drafted by the US after Japan's defeat in World War II, bar it from sending troops into combat overseas.
The guidelines painted China as a "bigger threat" than Russia and said Japan is shifting its defense emphasis from the northern island of Hokkaido to islands in the south.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said the plan will help Japan adapt to a "new, complex security environment."
The Japan-US alliance remains "indispensable" to Japan's security, the statement said, calling for stronger cooperation between Japanese and the 47,000 US armed forces based in Japan.
But it also noted a relative decline of America's strength and the rise of emerging countries such as China and India. Japan, meanwhile, should pursue its own efforts to enhance missile defense capabilities to protect itself from threats by China and North Korea, it said.
The new strategy document also said North Korea's military activity is a "pressing and serious destabilizing factor" for Japan and causes grave problems for international nonproliferation efforts.
"The Korean Peninsula and North Korea are imminent and concrete threats to Japan, while China is more of a medium-term threat," said Hideshi Takesada, executive director at Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies.
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