On July 15, the Japanese Ministry of Defense released its annual white paper, Japan’s Defense 2025, in which it characterizes China as an “unprecedented and greatest strategic challenge.”
During the presentation of the document, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani emphasized that, for the first time since World War II, global peace is facing a serious threat, and Japan finds itself in the most severe and complex security environment of the postwar era.
The 34-page white paper presents a pessimistic outlook for the Asia-Pacific region, highlighting the intensifying strategic competition between the United States and China, a dynamic that is contributing to a “dramatic” shift in the global balance of power.
The document notes that China is rapidly increasing its defense spending and enhancing its military capabilities, both quantitatively and qualitatively. It also details China’s expanding military activities across the Asia-Pacific, particularly in the East China Sea and around the Senkaku Islands, a territory administered by Japan but claimed by China, which refers to them as the Diaoyu Islands.
The white paper identifies the growing cooperation between China’s military and its coast guard as a critical threat. It argues that the deepening collaboration between the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the China Coast Guard, part of the People’s Armed Police, is aimed at enhancing China’s operational effectiveness in so-called “gray zone” situations, where the line between war and peace is intentionally blurred.
Taiwan is cited as a key example of such gray zone activity. The document warns that the PLA may employ coast guard forces to enforce a blockade or carry out military interventions against Taiwan. It specifically references the military exercises conducted by China on May 23, 2024, just three days after the inauguration of Taiwan’s new president, as an example of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive posture toward the island.
In response, China’s Ministry of Defense strongly criticized the Japanese white paper, dismissing its assessments as “false narratives.” The Chinese government accused Japan of exaggerating the so-called “China threat” as a pretext to ease its postwar constitutional restrictions on military activity.
“We urge the Japanese side to deeply learn from history, cease slandering and accusing China,” a spokesperson for China’s Defense Ministry stated.
