According to Huanqiu (Global Times), a Global Times reporter asked at the November 5 briefing for China’s view on the Japanese government’s plan to revise its three security documents, and Guo answered directly. The question rested on a report that Tokyo intends to pass a revised version in December.

Citing unnamed sources, the report said the draft would keep labeling China the ‘biggest strategic challenge’, raise defense spending over the next five years to nearly twice the current plan, or 70 to 80 trillion yen, and stress offensive capabilities such as long-range strike and unmanned combat. These details come from Huanqiu’s account; whether the Japanese government has officially confirmed the figures has not been confirmed.

Beijing’s stated position

Guo said Japan is eager to revise the documents, sharply raise military spending and build offensive forces. He called Japan’s effort to accelerate ‘re-militarization’ plain to see and argued that calling China the ‘biggest strategic challenge’ is a pretext for military expansion under the banner of defense.

He added that voices inside Japan worry that its identity as a ‘peace-loving nation’ is being undermined and that the economy and people’s livelihoods are being seriously affected. Stressing that the history of Japanese militarism, which brought great suffering to peoples in the Asia-Pacific and beyond, must not be forgotten, he said Japan keeps breaking through its ‘exclusively defense-oriented’ policy, threatening regional peace and challenging the postwar order, and urged the international community to stay vigilant and jointly contain it.

Japan’s side and what remains open

The Huanqiu article carried no rebuttal or statement from the Japanese government, and within the scope of our searches no official Japanese response to Guo’s remarks on November 5 could be found. Tokyo’s reaction therefore remains unconfirmed.

For reference, Japan’s security documents revised in December 2022 described China as an ‘unprecedented strategic challenge’ and set out a policy of acquiring counterstrike capability. Japan’s government has long said that strengthening its defense is a response to a deteriorating security environment around it. The specific wording of the new draft has not been released by Tokyo, so it cannot be confirmed.

In short, the two sides describe the same matter in opposite terms: Beijing sees military expansion under a defensive label, while Tokyo has consistently framed its steps as a response to a changed security environment. Until the December version is actually adopted its content may change, and the figures now circulating should be treated as reported, not final.