A group of Japanese people took to the street in Tokyo on Thursday, demanding Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to retract her erroneous remarks concerning China's Taiwan region and opposing her plan to expand the military.
At a Diet meeting on Nov 7, Takaichi claimed that the Chinese mainland's "use of force on Taiwan" could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan and implied the possibility of armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait, which has immediately sparked strong criticism at home and abroad.
Some protesters gathering near the National Diet Building were holding placards against Takaichi regime's efforts to incite war and promote xenophobia, while others read "smash military buildup budget," as Takaichi's blatant interference into China's internal affairs seems to be part of her attempt to lift Japan's military restrictions using the so-called external threats as an excuse.
"The China-Japan Joint Statement has already confirmed the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. Japan once invaded and occupied Taiwan for 50 years. Is Japan to repeat the disastrous policy? It's the Japanese people's responsibility to prevent that from happening," said a protester.
"Japan did invade China and killed many Chinese people in history. Instead of soul-searching, the Japanese government is seeking to do it again. This must not be allowed," said another protester.
In late November, the Japanese government approved a supplementary budget proposal for fiscal 2025 (April 2025-March 2026), boosting defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) ahead of schedule.
Japan's accelerated increase in defense spending and remilitarization attempts over the past few years have raised widespread concerns and opposition and reignited doubts about the country's future direction.
"The Constitution says armed forces 'will never be maintained,' yet Japan has self-defense forces now. This is self-contradictory. In nature it's no different from the situation before the end of the war," said another protester.
Japanese rally against PM, military buildup
Neil Bush, founder and chair of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, has hailed the warming of China-U.S. relations and highlighted the enduring resilience of China's economy.
Bush spoke on the sidelines of the 2025 International Symposium on the Peaceful Use of Space Technology – Health (IPSPACE 2025) in Boao, a coastal town in China's island province of Hainan. He pointed to the recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, as a key step toward improving bilateral ties, despite persistent trade tensions.
"I think it's improving. It's reached a kind of an all-time low recently. But the fact that the presidents met and there's been more exchanges, there's been, I think a better understanding established, and you can see signs from Washington that there's an easing of tensions, which I'm very, very happy to see. I still think that there are going to be challenges with our bilateral trade relationship. I'm concerned that our government believes that tariffs are going to help America create jobs and create wealth in America. And I think that's a false thesis for an economic policy. So I'm concerned there may not be much negotiating on the issue of tariffs. Otherwise, the bilateral relationship seems to be warming and improving, which I'm very happy about," said Bush.
Bush also praised China's economic progress and its leading role in shaping an AI-driven future.
"You can never count China out. There have been many, many projections over the past 20 to 30 years of China's demise. 'Experts' predicted that China is going to go down. The reality is China is very resilient, and there's so much activity going on here. We're at an IP space conference. There's a lot of discussion about innovation and finance and capital and all the new technologies that fall out of AI's development. There's a lot going on, not just in China, but clearly China is playing a critical role in building the new economy, the transition economy from kind of the old way to the AI-driven way," said Bush.
Bush also highlighted the benefits that China's economic development has brought to improving people's livelihoods.
"China's resilient. China's economy, hopefully, will continue to grow. I happen to believe that as economies grow, people benefit and the role of government should be to provide benefits to its people. So our American capitalist system has worked in America to make us a very strong country where people are enjoying all kinds of benefits from wealth. China, likewise, the people of China are benefiting from economics. So I applaud the economic development in China, which is helping to improve the life of more and more millions of people," he said.
Bush China Foundation chair hails improvement in China-US ties
