Xinhua recently reported that the newly released Japanese Defense Whitepaper is full of false statements against China. The Japanese Cabinet approved the latest Whitepaper on July 9. It suggested that the Japanese government is pushing hard to counter the “Chinese military threat.” The language in the Whitepaper suggested that China’s military activities at sea are a threat to the safety not only of Japan but to the entire region as well. The report however expressed the belief that this is just a game the Abe administration is playing in order to justify its attempts to modify the Japanese constitution and to break the traditional military limitations Japan has had in place since the end of the Second World War. The Whitepaper claimed that China has taken a lot of “dangerous steps” to change the existing international order and that, in the past ten years, China’s defense budget has tripled while Japan’s showed a five percent decline. The Chinese government issued an official rebuttal immediately, saying that the Japanese allegations are simply lies and Japan is just looking for excuses to increase its defense spending.
Source: Xinhua, July 11, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mrdx/2013-07/10/c_132527928.htm
