Move seen as a threat to Asian security with one newspaper describing it as a 'dangerous signal and wake-up call'

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

China's government and media have launched a broadside against Japan's move to loosen the bonds on its powerful military, casting it as a threat to Asian security.

The criticism came a day after the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said his cabinet had formally endorsed a reinterpretation of a constitutional clause banning the use of armed force except in narrowly defined circumstances.

"We urge Japan to follow its path of peaceful development and be prudent in handling relevant issues, honestly respect the legitimate security concerns of Asian countries and refrain from doing anything which may jeopardise regional peace and stability," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

Beijing had expressed its concern to Tokyo on many occasions over the rule change, he added. "We ask Japan not to infringe on China's sovereignty and security interests."

China's state-run media used significantly stronger language in denouncing the move.

"The Japanese government is eager to break through the postwar system," wrote the ruling Communist party's flagship People's Daily newspaper in an editorial written under the name Zhong Sheng, a homophone for Voice of China.

It called the Abe government's move "a dangerous signal, as well as a wake-up call".

In a commentary on Tuesday, China's official Xinhua news agency challenged Tokyo with a question: "Is China on your military agenda?"

"Japan has a history of making sneaky attacks, as it did in launching wars with China, Russia and the United States in the recent 100 years," Xinhua wrote. "Now Japan, with greater freedom to use military force, is making the world more worried."

China, home to the world's largest military, far outnumbers rival Japan in manpower, ships, aircraft and defence spending.

China's official defence budget last year came to $119.5bn (£70bn) , while according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies' 2014 military balance report, released in February, Japan's total was $51bn .

Tokyo and Beijing have long been at odds over islands in the East China Sea and Beijing has argued that a reinterpretation of Japan's pacifist constitution could open the door to remilitarisation of a country it considers insufficiently penitent for its actions in the second world war.

The state-run China Daily newspaper wrote that "the recalcitrant attempts by Japanese politicians, including Abe, to rewrite history and their country's unseemly record in the second world war are reminders that Japan doesn't deserve being treated as a normal country".

China's nationalistic Global Times, which is close to the Communist party, ran a cartoon on Wednesday depicting Abe as the American action hero Rambo, with a Japanese flag bandana tied around his forehead and wielding a large machine gun.

"Both Tokyo and Washington wish to see more disturbances in Asia, as the US hopes it will hinder China's rise and Japan wants to seek opportunities to realise its rise both politically and militarily," the paper wrote.

"China needs to expose the Japanese rightists' evil intent."