In a followup to this post from November of last year,
107 Alerts on Chinese Spy PlanesJapan has scrambled fighter jets 107 times this year to intercept suspected Chinese spy planes, a top general said Thursday, amid growing concern in Tokyo over China’s arms buildup. The 107 alerts in the first three months of 2006 — the most in at least a decade — were a dramatic increase from the previous year, when fighters scrambled only 13 times against Chinese planes, said Gen. Hajime Massaki.
“Chinese activities in areas around Japanese territory have reached unprecedented levels,” the chairman of the Joint Staff Committee told reporters. “We believe these planes to be engaging in information-gathering activity, and behind the trend is the rapid modernization of China’s military,” the general said.
Japan’s policymakers are super-sensitive right now to China’s military buildup. Beijing has a
2.5-million member military, and has increased its military spending by double-digits almost every year since the early 1990s (notably above the growth of its GDP). There are other factors that make the figure higher than it actually is—China does not include R&D in its defense spending, 40% of Japan’s budget goes to salaries compared to 20% for China, not to mention the rations. The BBC has a summary on the topic here. This is the main reason Japan is going out of its way to join up with the American Missile Defense Plan, join them in the reorganization of the military, and try its hard—beef imports notwithstanding—to keep great relations with the US.

Comments to this entry
snow
April 24, 2006
4:46 am
Elizabeth
April 24, 2006
6:03 am
Bill Petti
April 24, 2006
12:33 pm
And precisely who is in the international system? Given that there is no one to guarantee a state's security why should any state be trusted? What makes China less trustworthy than other states in the region--is it just their increase in military spending, spending disproportionate to the threats they face (as we define them)? Is it their desire to achieve Great Power status or regional hegemony? Who would not want to achieve these things and the advantages that accompany them? If I am not mistaken, that was and is an integral part of US grand strategy and it seems to be working out pretty well for us. China would be silly not to modernize and grow its military.
Unlike some other psuedo-great powers in the world I would think analysts who appreciate deft strategic thinking would be applauding China for understanding how international relations really works :)
Elizabeth
April 24, 2006
12:46 pm
snow
April 24, 2006
1:45 pm
snow
April 24, 2006
1:48 pm
Alfred Russel Wallace
April 24, 2006
2:22 pm
Joe Kelley
April 24, 2006
2:47 pm
Joe
April 24, 2006
4:01 pm
Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Japan: China’s military buildup
April 24, 2006
4:25 pm
Curzon
April 24, 2006
11:13 pm
Bill Petti
April 25, 2006
1:18 am
Additionally, they have done so in a way that has not caused great consternation in the region to the point where states balance against it--they have been incredibly pragmatic and efficient in this regard.
sun bin
April 25, 2006
3:02 am
it could also be said that "(some factions in japan/etc) are deliberately provoking china to react'....you need to give them an excuse, don't you? and more of the yasukuni shit happened since a year ago, was there any large street protest?
anyway, the fact that china is upping its defense spending has more to do with taiwan, than anything else. (also securing oil import, etc). it is trying to build a credible deterrant on taiwan. there is really nothing against japan, until japan prepared itself to intervene in taiwan, that was what hit china's nerve.
sun bin
April 26, 2006
9:20 am
i ask because chinese media reported that it includes part of the area west of japan's EEZ claim zone, 130 km east of china's coastline.
all i know is japan's own EEZ, which is not as outrageous.
sun bin
May 4, 2006
9:16 am
looks quite outrageous, SDF is alerted even if China is flying in its own undisputed Chinese EEZ. no wonder.