Japan gives cause for concern: China Daily editorial

Unlike his predecessor, who thought the United States could go it alone in confronting China, President Joe Biden is seeking to rally support for his administration's continuation of efforts to contain China's rise and development.

Japan, for one, has jumped at the chance to play a more important role in the US strategy toward China and the Asia-Pacific at large, as was made clear during Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's visit to Washington in April.

In a joint statement issued during the visit, the two leaders not only mounted unwarranted criticism on China's naval activities in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits but also blatantly sought to interfere in China's internal affairs in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

It has become routine for Japan to seek to underscore and consolidate the US-Japan alliance each time the US has a new president. Hence, Japan's intention to scrap the existing cap on its defense spending and drastically increase it could be just a prelude to a series of strategic maneuvers showing its commitment to US strategy in the region.

In an interview with Japanese newspaper Nikkei last week, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi expressed his country's desire to do away with its long-standing 1 percent of GDP ceiling for annual defense spending. This would be a worrying and dangerous move, as Japan's ambition to bolster its defense capabilities would have far-reaching consequences for regional peace and stability.

For a long time, whether Japan follows the principle of limiting its defense budget to 1 percent of its GDP has been a barometer for others to gauge its strategic intentions. Since 1990, with the exception of 2010, Japan has stringently adhered to the cap for 30 years.

Unsurprisingly, Kishi cited China as one of the reasons behind his country's desire to increase its defense capabilities at "a radically different pace than in the past".

In fact, Japan has been hiking its defense budget for nine consecutive years, just falling short of breaking the 1 percent GDP cap, and almost every time it has used China as the excuse. But its dispute with China over the islands in the East China Sea is only a superficial excuse and cannot shield its overall strategic calculations.

And this should raise the alarm in the region as it is against the regional and global trend of building peace and stability, and may even trigger a regional arms race.