No longer confined to disputed islands or historical memory, the rivalry between Beijing and Tokyo has evolved into a fight for the global microphone, as both countries try to define each other’s international identity.
Amid an escalating diplomatic crisis, China is intensifying its rhetoric against what it calls Japan’s “new militarism”, using World War II-era history to rally regional and global sympathy for its position.
In stark contrast, Japan has rejected the label as “false claims”, casting itself as a defender of regional security, a peace-loving country and a victim of “coercion”.
Tokyo has argued that Beijing’s expanding arsenal, “opaque” military build-ups and “challenges to the established rules” should worry the international community.
While China’s denunciation of Japan’s new militarism is still being tested for traction abroad, many countries between the Asia-Pacific region and Europe have continued to deepen their defence cooperation with Tokyo.
“China faces a profoundly distorted global narrative that has largely obscured the fascist atrocities committed by Japan against China and other nations during World War II that have never been fully reckoned with at the international level,” said Shen Yi, executive director of the Centre for National Security Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.