Japan Set to Keep China Wording in Security Strategy: "Greatest Strategic Challenge," Not "Threat"
Japan's government is leaning toward keeping the current wording on China in its National Security Strategy when it revises the three security documents by year-end, Kyodo News reported on October 30: China’s external posture and military moves would remain “the greatest strategic challenge ever faced,” and would not be upgraded to “threat,” a term usually reserved for hostile states. Several government sources disclosed the direction on October 30; a final decision is expected after ruling-party consultations beginning in mid-November.
The current strategy, adopted in 2022, cites China's military buildup, economic coercion and attempts to change the status quo unilaterally in the East and South China Seas, calling them the greatest strategic challenge to reinforcing a rules-based international order, while distinguishing China from North Korea, which is designated an “imminent threat.” Within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, some had argued for the “threat” label.
Officials counseling caution note that China is Japan's largest trading partner with deep economic ties; that relations have been chilly since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last November hinted Japan might intervene in a Taiwan contingency, making a formal “threat” designation a risk for wider diplomatic friction; and that the United States is moving toward a “constructive strategic stability” relationship with China, which Tokyo does not want to outrun rhetorically. One government insider said writing “threat” would be difficult and that a realistic approach would prevail.
The three documents are the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Program Guidelines and the related diplomacy and security document, all slated for revision by year-end.
Source: Kyodo News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于东京的日本国会议事堂。CC0 授权照片，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The National Diet Building in Tokyo. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
