(TibetanReview.net, Apr25’26) – China, which has the world’s second largest defence budget and the largest navy in terms of number of war ships, and which is a key security threat to Japan has condemned the latter for scrapping its ban on lethal weapons export policy and criticised India, victim of its frequent border aggressions, for welcoming Tokyo’s move.
Japan scrapped a ban on lethal weapons export in a dangerous breach of its postwar “pacifist constitution” and security framework, but India welcomed the shift, said China’s party mouthpiece globaltimes.cn Apr 24, citing “observers”.
India on Thursday (Apr 23) welcomed Japan’s decision to scrap a ban on lethal weapons exports, and its Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) claimed that defence and security cooperation forms an “important pillar” of the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership, the report said, citing local Indian media Business Standard.
The report went on to cite a spokesperson for MEA as saying that “as part of the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation between India and Japan, both sides have committed to increase practical cooperation in the interest of their national security and continued economic dynamism.”
Japan is ignoring today’s geopolitical realities in the Asia-Pacific by seeking to revise its pacifist framework, opening lethal weapons exports, recklessly provoking confrontation with China, and even attempting to return to the old road of militarism. Such actions damage regional geopolitical stability and will inevitably arouse vigilance and opposition from countries, including China, that suffered from Japanese aggression, Qian Feng, director of the Research Department at the government-run Tsinghua University’s National Strategy Institute, has said.
Qian has said Tokyo’s move effectively breaks the postwar order, threatens regional stability, and risks undermining Asia-Pacific prosperity, while urging India not to forget history or seek strategic balancing by loosening constraints on Japan.
China’s perception of the postwar order, regional stability, and Asia-Pacific prosperity is obviously based on its military and economic domination with the other countries in the region having little choice but to follow its lead and dicta, including when it calls almost the whole of the South China sea its territory.
“India hopes to… deepen ties with Japan in service of its ‘Indo-Pacific’ strategy, and even attempt to use Japanese strength to balance China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific and pursue strategic containment,” Qian has maintained.
Although India was also invaded by Japan during World War II, it has chosen at this moment to support Japan’s mistaken move. India should not forget history and should clearly see Japan’s true intentions, Qian has added.
Under its postwar “pacifist constitution”, Japan enjoyed decades of peace, economic prosperity and social stability under that framework. Now that it is abandoning this principle and even revisiting the path of militarism, India should carefully consider the true consequences of such acts made by Japan’s Takaichi government, Qian has warned.
China’s provocative patrolling of Japan’s Senkaku Islands which Beijing insists are its Diaoyu Islands, and its rising threats to invade the self-ruled democratic island of Taiwan have been major sources of friction between the two countries.
Any acquisition of arms by India would obviously be targeted primarily against Pakistan, its arch-enemy and China’s close ally, and China itself, its only other Major military adversary.