China has accused Japan of abandoning its commitments to peace and openly defying the post-war international order, calling on the world to counter Tokyo’s drive to rearm.

Senior Colonel Chen Xi, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks at the ministry’s regular press briefing on Friday.

The warning follows reports that Japan’s updated security documents, which the government aims to approve in December, will keep naming China as the country’s greatest strategic challenge and nearly double defense spending to between 70 and 80 trillion yen (about $443 billion to $506 billion) over five years.

Tokyo is also debating how to word its three non-nuclear principles, including the ban on introducing nuclear weapons into Japan. Chinese officials say the changes could open the door to exceptions that would allow nuclear weapons to be brought in during emergencies.

Beijing calls for countermeasures

Chen urged the international community to “stay highly vigilant” and to adopt countermeasures against "Japan’s push for remilitarization." He also called for upholding the nuclear non-proliferation regime and defending global security and peace.

Japan’s steps, the spokesperson said, have undermined its own pledge to peace while “blatantly” challenging the post-war order and the authority of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Chen said Japan is expanding military spending, building up offensive and long-range strike capabilities, and working to loosen its nuclear restrictions step by step.

He accused Japan’s “right-wing forces” of inventing a “China threat” narrative to justify the buildup.

Chen opened his response by recalling that Japan lost World War II and that its militarists committed grave crimes against people across the Asia-Pacific and beyond. Japan should have reckoned with its record of aggression and war crimes, he said, yet the same forces now distort the facts to cast Japan as the victim.

Rearmament under way

Japan’s 2026 defense white paper describes the country’s security environment as the most severe since 1945, according to an analysis published by Eurasia Review.

The 598-page document, issued under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, names China as Japan’s greatest strategic challenge and points to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea missile tests and deepening Russian military cooperation with Pyongyang.

Fiscal 2026 defense spending has passed 9 trillion yen (about $57 billion) and is moving toward 2 percent of GDP. The paper also stresses drones, artificial intelligence and cyber warfare, while Tokyo eases arms export rules and expands military ties with Australia, the Philippines, South Korea and NATO members.

Beijing protested the paper, whereas Washington welcomed it as burden-sharing.

Costs, supply problems slow the buildup

The expansion is running into financial and industrial limits. A weak yen, inflation and supply bottlenecks pushed the unit price of Japan’s domestically built P-1 patrol aircraft up 50 percent to 46 billion yen ($290 million) between fiscal 2023 and 2026, according to Japanese Defense Ministry disclosures and a January audit board report. Corrosion and a shortage of spare parts have cut the fleet’s mission-capable rate to roughly 30 percent.

Japan is also waiting on 118 US Foreign Military Sales contracts worth 1.14 trillion yen ($7.2 billion) that remain undelivered after at least five years. Deliveries of up to 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles face a two-year delay after US stockpiles were drained by the US war on Iran.

A November report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that US forces fired more than 1,100 Tomahawks, a third of the prewar inventory, and that stocks will not recover until early 2031.