Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi recently delivered a statement on the 10th anniversary of the "commemoration of the South China Sea arbitration ruling," claiming that Japan is a stakeholder in South China Sea affairs. This sparked a strong backlash from China. In addition to lodging a solemn diplomatic protest, Chinese state media Global Times published an editorial on the 14th, continuing to criticize Japan's intention of reviving militarism in the South China Sea region.
The editorial is titled "We Must Never Let 'New-Type Militarism' Plague the South China Sea." The editorial interprets that Japan has three interests in the South China Sea: First, it is treating the South China Sea as a testing ground for "remilitarization." The right-wing in Japan is accelerating its steps to break free of military restrictions, stepping on the Philippines as a "stepping stone," and is incrementally advancing "new-type militarism" throughout the Asia-Pacific.
Second, Japan is attempting, under the banner of the "Japan-US alliance," to tie regional countries onto its war chariot.
Third, it seeks to contain China and cultivate soil for "remilitarization," claiming that Japan has always tried to promote the so-called "Three Seas Linkage" around China, intending through the concept of a "single theater of operations" to constrain China from the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and South China Sea fronts.
The editorial claims that one notable feature of "new-type militarism" is to use the gentle language of modern rule of law to cloak expanding armament and preparations for war with a false veneer of legitimacy. At present, Japan is becoming the most dangerous, and at the same time potentially most covert, disruptor in the South China Sea region, as it uses "international rule of law" to disguise "bloc confrontation," and "military transparency" to cover up "military expansion."
On the 10th anniversary of the South China Sea arbitration ruling, the governments of 14 countries—including Japan, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States—issued a joint statement on the 12th, once again reaffirming the arbitral tribunal's verdict that "China's expansive maritime rights claims lack legal basis."