Growing threats from China and North Korea : Japan strengthens defence capabilities

Tokyo [Japan] : Amid the rising security threats from China and North Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday vowed to strengthen the country’s defence capabilities.

Kishida’s remarks came during a speech at a Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) base, where he expressed concern about North Korea’s rapid development of missile technology and China’s military expansion, Kyodo News reported.

When Japan revises its foreign and security policies, Kishida said all options will be on the table including the idea of giving the Self-Defense Forces the capability to strike at hostile enemy bases.

Kishida said Japan “cannot overlook (North Korea’s) recent development and improvement of new technologies such as hypersonic glide weapons and missiles with irregular orbits”.

The Japanese PM also pointed towards China’s moves to strengthen its military without maintaining sufficient transparency.

“China continues to strengthen its military without sufficient transparency and is making “unilateral attempts to change the status quo,” Kishida said.

Earlier, Kishida had also expressed strong concern over human rights issues in China during his remarks at a virtual meeting of lea ders from about 50 Asian and European countries on Friday.

Kishida voiced worries about the human rights situation in Hong Kong as well as the Xinjiang region in northwestern China on the sidelines of the two-day summit, Kyodo News reported.

In recent days, fresh evidence has emerged against China showing surveillance, intimidation and harassment of members of the Uyghur Muslim minority community at concentration camps in China’s Xinjiang region.