Taiwan tensions may heighten, Japan defence report says

Japan’s defence minister said on Tuesday tensions over Taiwan may heighten as he presented an annual defence white paper that again singled out mainland China as Japan’s “greatest strategic challenge”.

Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani named China in the opening paragraphs of the report, presented to Japan’s cabinet, declaring Beijing’s military activities to be an “unprecedented” challenge that Japan must counter through national strength and alliances with partner countries.

It was the third consecutive year that the report used the designation.

The white paper highlighted China’s sweeping and rapid modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), particularly in nuclear, missile, naval and air capabilities, over the past three decades.

“China has been swiftly increasing its national defence expenditures, thereby extensively and rapidly enhancing its military capability in a qualitative and quantitative manner, and intensifying its activities in the East China Sea, including around the Senkaku Islands and the Pacific,” Nakatani said, adding that PLA operations now extended beyond the first island chain into the second. The Senkaku Islands are known as the Diaoyus in China.

The report warned specifically of increased Chinese military and coastguard activity, including nearby manoeuvres by warships and aircraft, which Tokyo believed could “seriously impact Japan’s security”.