People’s Daily recently reported that Japan has started providing military technical support to several countries around China. The support primarily covers “non-combat” areas like mine-sweeping and medical help. For the time being, China’s involved neighboring countries are Indonesia, Vietnam, East Timor, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Tonga. Japanese media suggested that Japan intends to enhance cooperative relations with China’s neighbors because of the pressure of increases in China’s military power. This is another of the Japanese Army’s overseas military related missions since it participated in the United Nations’ peacekeeping missions. The Japanese government expressed the belief that these technical support activities are reasonable because the countries receiving support are not engaged in combat.
Source: People’s Daily, August 27, 2012
http://world.people.com.cn/n/2012/0827/c42354-18836705.html