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🇸🇬 Singapore /Conflict & Security

Japan Defense Chief Questions China's Military Spending Data

From The Straits Times · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi questioned the transparency and accuracy of China's official military spending figures.
  • Koizumi contrasted Japan's transparent budget process with China's, highlighting the difficulty in comparing defense outlays.
  • The remarks signal Tokyo's tougher stance against Beijing's accusations of "new militarism" and China's pressure tactics, such as export controls on rare earths.

Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has openly challenged the credibility of China's reported military expenditures, signaling a more assertive stance from Tokyo in response to Beijing's accusations of "new militarism."

Koizumi contrasted Japan's transparent defense budget process, which involves parliamentary scrutiny, with China's opaque reporting. "Are the figures they put forward genuinely grounded in fact, backed by evidence, and highly transparent?" Koizumi asked in an interview, questioning the basis of China's disclosed numbers. He noted that Western governments and academics generally doubt that China's stated defense spending fully captures its total outlays, making direct comparisons with other nations difficult.

Our budgets undergo scrutiny and deliberation in parliament. Are the figures they put forward genuinely grounded in fact, backed by evidence, and highly transparent? When doubts arise on those points, how much effort do they put into explaining them?

— Shinjiro KoizumiJapan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi questioning the transparency of China's military spending data.

The U.S. Pentagon, for instance, estimated in December that China's total defense spending for 2024 could be 32% to 63% higher than Beijing's announced budget of $231 billion. This estimate includes various categories not always reflected in official figures, such as spending on armed police, provincial security, veterans' affairs, and research and development.

Koizumi's remarks come amid heightened tensions, with China continuing to pressure Japan following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last November, which suggested Japan might become involved in a Taiwan conflict. Beijing has also employed economic leverage, tightening controls on exports of critical materials like rare earths to Japan. Takaichi herself raised concerns at the G7 summit about China's measures potentially disrupting supply chains for G7 nations.

There is a country that has a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons and strategic bombers. Japan has neither of such weapons, and yet Japan is labelled

— Shinjiro KoizumiKoizumi responding to Beijing's accusations of Japanese "new militarism."
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Originally published by The Straits Times in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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