Japan's defence minister denies militarism and criticises China's 'huge arsenal'
Posted by Tartan_Samurai@reddit | anime_titties | View on Reddit | 23 comments
QuotableMorceau@reddit
I don't understand these "powers" with nuclear arsenals and huge military budgets that throw tantrum fits when a neighbour does some preventime arming, because the said "powers" starts having a hegemonic rhetoric (and actions), what do they expect really? for everyone to cave in ...
It is the natural reaction to an increasing threat: you rearm and you also start building alliances with peers, basically porcupine strategy .
Some_Development3447@reddit
In the case of China, who is surrounded by US encirclement and tolerated years of threats, facing a neighbor who has never apologized (such as erasing their past atrocities from textbooks) for war crimes against it. I get why.
QuotableMorceau@reddit
For an encircled country it sure is plenty aggressive with its neighbours (I mean Vietnam is allied with US when it come to China, not because they have a long standing friendship, but because the outward hegemonic behaviour of China gave them no other choice).
When you claim a whole fucking sea as your own (twice as large as the Gulf of Mexico), and you start deploying military hardware able to hit all your neighbours, those neighbors have only two options: make deals with another power for protection (US/UK/Australia), or beef up your own national army (SK , Japan).
2011-2012 China starts seizing islands and militerizes them -> 2014 Southeast Asia Maritime Security Initiative begins to help SEA countries modernize their radars/coast guard -> 2019 US and ASEAN countries start joint exercises -> 2020 Philippines opens more joint military bases with US and Indonesia starts military exercises with US ...... so you see US would have had no opening to be in SEA if China didn't spook it's neighbours ... the same story happened with Sweden/Finland and NATO ... and with the nordic countries+Canada vs US .
defenestrate_urself@reddit
Like most ASEAN countries they play the middle ground between the US Sam’s CHN. By your definition then Vietnam is also be allied with China against the US.
https://en.baochinhphu.vn/viet-nam-china-hold-40th-joint-patrol-and-training-exercise-in-tonkin-gulf-111260319155125377.htm
https://news.tuoitre.vn/chinese-pla-contingent-arrives-in-hanoi-for-vietnams-national-day-parade-103250829180445303.htm
Funnily enough Vietnam was amongst the first countries to seize, militarise and dredge artificial islands in the SEA but nobody mentions it because the media doesn’t care unless it’s China.
https://amti.csis.org/before-and-after-the-south-china-sea-transformed/
https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2026-03/could-vietnams-new-south-china-sea-bases-open-pandoras-box
Apprehensive_Emu9240@reddit
Isn't that what China is doing to India?
Snow_Unity@reddit
No
NekoCatSidhe@reddit
It certainly reminds me of the US complaining about Iran developing and building long-ranged missiles, which they ended up using as an excuse (among others) to attack them. But what else did they expect Iran to do after threatening to bomb the country for more than two decades and eventually doing so ?
If you want peace, prepare for war, that has been true at least since the Roman Empire. Japan would be stupid not to prepare for war when their most dangerous neighbour keeps threatening to attack their ally in Taiwan.
iRadiKS@reddit
The thing is that with the precedent the USA set, China could just claim that Japan is weeks away from nukes and attack them. Japan has almost 2 tons of highly enriched uranium as a back up, should they ever need nukes. They held onto that stockpile for years and nobody ever said anything about it, in fact many countries stockpile highly enriched uranium 'just in case'. And in this case, Japan is a important ally of the US and part of the attack force that they have been building for years around china. I doubt however China would ever do something that stupid. And Japan in return should maybe realize that it gains more from cooperation, than complaining and going with the americans bidding
QuotableMorceau@reddit
the vast majority of the weapon grade plutonium that Japan has accumulated (44tons) is actually stored abroad in UK & France, what they have locally is for research
Tartan_Samurai@reddit (OP)
Cuban missile crisis originated from the same premis. America putting nuclear weapons in Turkey and then flying off the handle when the USSR reciprocated by putting some of theirs on Cuba.
NekoCatSidhe@reddit
Interesting parallel. I wonder if the US being relativelysafe and isolated from most of their enemies by two oceans is what made them arrogant enough to think their enemies cannot do the same things they are doing, and then freak out and cry that it is unfair when that assumption turns out to be wrong.
Chewbacca_The_Wookie@reddit
It's absolutely part of our issue. Due to the size and experience of our military (we don't have healthcare for a reason) any direct military action short of nukes would be incredibly difficult and costly for whomever attempted it, and the American government knows that.
Jersey_2019@reddit
Yeah , their geography dictated their policy attitude
blackbartimus@reddit
Well in China’s case against Japan it’s concerning when the small country that invaded and committed an atrocity against both civilians and combatants that it still refuses to acknowledge begins rearming itself. People readily forget but behind Russia, China lost the most people in WWII 15-20 million people. While Im sure people will try to simplify this as a standard dispute between a big powerful country and a weakened island nation it’s definitely not that simple. America was also deeply distrustful of Japan after defeating it in the war and helped ensure the LDP was a uniparty ruling the country for 40 years afterwards through loose economic and political endorsements. That era is over and people should not be surprised China does not want to see Japan rebuild its military no matter how defensive they claim to be given the very long lasting grievance between them. This isn’t the same as America (which has never been invaded) saber rattling against countries that have never posed a credible threat to it.
Silberbaum@reddit
I think Chinas main concern is, it is just way more difficult to bully an armed country, than an unarmed one.
blackbartimus@reddit
For all the power imbalance China has today they’ve been remarkably restrained with handling the country guilty of killing off an enormous portion of their population. If the roles were reversed and America had endured 15-20 million deaths at Japanese hands I can’t imagine the same level of tact and restraint to be fully honest. That’s about 2-3 holocausts combined depending on which figure is correct.
Comfortable_Tart_297@reddit
15-20 million is a lot but for a country as big as China it’s par for the course lol. At the time it was less than 5% of the population. They’ve had multiple civil wars and other disasters with higher death tolls than that.
Apprehensive_Emu9240@reddit
Japan was protected by Washington. Not really a remarkable constraint
Sendnudec00kies@reddit
Don't forget that many politicians of Japan idealize and dream of bringing back Imperial Japan. It wouldn't be surprising if Takeichi started spouting things about a Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.
isomorphix_@reddit
Considering the evil japan has done, anyone with morals or a heart would be alarmed at this
CenkIsABuffalo@reddit
Agreed because Japan has never used prevention and self-defence as a pretext to launch a war on aggression against its neighbours in its entire history.
NoEntrepreneur6631@reddit
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