China Slams Japan's Indo-Pacific Push

(MENAFN) China on Saturday launched a pointed diplomatic offensive against Japan, accusing Tokyo of exploiting regional security partnerships and its "free and open Indo-Pacific" framework as a smokescreen for military expansion — a trajectory Beijing warned could destabilize the broader Asia-Pacific region, state media reported.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin directed his sharpest criticism at Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent visits to Australia and Vietnam, where she sought to reinforce security cooperation. According media, Jiang accused Tokyo of deliberately engineering bloc-based rivalries across the region.

"Under the pretexts of the so-called 'free and open Indo-Pacific' and 'security cooperation,' governing authorities in Japan are instigating bloc confrontation and building 'small circles,' " he said, adding: "This undermines the strategic security and interests of other countries, and serves as an excuse for Japan to break free from the restrictions on its military development, which we firmly oppose."

Constitutional Revision in Beijing's Crosshairs
Jiang widened his critique to target domestic debates within Japan over potentially overhauling the country's post-war pacifist constitution, characterizing the push as evidence of a deliberate transition from what he called "covert military buildup to overt war preparation." He further cautioned that what Beijing has framed as resurging "neo-militarism" in Japan posed a mounting and tangible threat to Asian peace.

Invoking the weight of history, Jiang drew attention to this year's 80th anniversary of the Tokyo Trials — the post-World War II tribunal that prosecuted Japanese wartime leaders — and accused Japanese right-wing factions of working to whitewash wartime aggression while venerating convicted war criminals enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine.

Beijing called on Tokyo to "face up to history" and undertake meaningful measures to rebuild trust with neighboring Asian nations and the wider international community.

Philippines Drawn Into the Fray
Jiang also weighed in on a recent summit between Japanese and Filipino defense ministers, during which both sides pledged to deepen their defense cooperation. The Chinese spokesperson condemned the joint posture in stark terms: "Certain politicians from Japan and the Philippines have been hyping up false narratives on maritime issues and making groundless accusations against China, which China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposes."

More broadly, Jiang called on "relevant countries" to abandon bloc-forming behavior and step back from what Beijing characterized as a dangerous slide toward camp-based confrontation.

Tokyo had not issued any immediate response to China's statements at the time of publication.

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