Japan names China its greatest strategic challenge

Japan sees China's growing ambition for power as its "greatest strategic challenge," according to the new white paper on defence approved on Friday by the government of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Japan should respond to this by "cooperation and collaboration" with its protecting power, the United States, and other "like-minded countries," the white paper said.

It follows a change in Japan's security strategy implemented in December: In a departure from its hitherto exclusively defence-oriented security doctrine, Japan wants to put itself in a position to eliminate enemy missile positions. Expenditure on its own armed forces is to be massively increased as a result.

The new defence strategy and the white paper show how concerned Japan is about China's growing military ambitions. In Japan, for example, there are fears that the neighbouring giant, like Russia with Ukraine, could one day go for democratic Taiwan.

China, Russia and North Korea are contributing to the "most serious and complicated" security environment since World War II, according to the Japanese government.

On Thursday, Russian and Chinese delegates joined North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang for a military parade that showcased the isolated country's newly developed drones and long-range nuclear-capable missiles, according to North Korean state media.

The fact that a Russian delegation led by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu attended the parade raises concerns about increased military cooperation between Russia and North Korea.

Meanwhile, a report that the leader of Hong Kong will not be allowed to travel to the important Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economic summit in the U.S. because of existing sanctions has caused anger in Beijing.

This is a "blatant violation of APEC rules," a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday. China strongly rejects this and calls on the US to lift all sanctions against Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee.

The Washington Post had previously reported that the U.S. did not want Lee to attend this year's APEC summit in San Francisco in November because of the sanctions, which have been in place for three years.

Lee had been sanctioned by Washington in 2020 after Beijing passed a strict security law for the Chinese special administrative region, as Hong Kong is officially known, that targeted the democracy movement.

The Hong Kong government also voiced criticism on Friday, calling on the U.S. in a statement to allow Lee to attend the November meeting.