BEIJING, November 5. /TASS/. The renewed militarization of Japan will pose a serious threat to the security of the Asia-Pacific region, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Guo Jiakun said.

"Japan is eager to revise the three [basic] documents on [national] security, significantly increase military spending, and develop offensive capabilities. This clearly demonstrates its ambitions to accelerate militarization," the diplomat told reporters, commenting on Tokyo’s plans to adopt a new version of these documents in December, in which China is expected to continue to be identified as the "greatest strategic challenge."

According to the spokesman, in the past, Japanese militarism "committed unthinkable crimes, bringing immense suffering to the peoples of the Asia-Pacific region and the entire world." He noted that Tokyo’s remilitarization and its attempts to "go beyond the principle of exclusively defensive actions" challenge the postwar international order and "pose a threat to regional peace and stability."

"The so-called ‘greatest strategic challenge’ is nothing more than a pretext that the Japanese side is using to justify military expansion under the guise of defense," Guo Jiakun emphasized. "We must not ignore the lessons of the past. <...> The international community must remain highly vigilant and work together to curb these actions," he pointed out.

On December 16, 2022, the Japanese government approved three core national security documents that revise the previous military doctrine. Tokyo has openly declared a policy of building offensive capabilities that would allow it to strike targets in China and North Korea. The Japanese government calls this a deterrent.