With Japan, China faces a corrosive security dilemma

🇯🇵 South China Morning Post (JP) —
With Japan, China faces a corrosive security dilemma

AI Summary

Japan's 2026 defense white paper labels China as its greatest strategic challenge for the fourth year, marking an ongoing strategic shift since 2014. This framing aligns with a broader geopolitical calculation involving the US and regional security dynamics.

Japan’s 610-page 2026 defence white paper cements a strategic shift: Tokyo has labelled China an “unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge” for the fourth straight year, a framing dating back to 2014, when a Japanese white paper first flagged Beijing’s East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone as risking unintended incidents. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has not altered this trajectory, only accelerated it. This strategic timing aligns with Beijing’s calculus. Even as US...

World Security Conflict Politics Japan defense China security dilemma East China Sea strategic challenge US alignment Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi

Read original source →