Defense & Security

China Seen to Attempt to Destabilize Takaichi’s Administration Through Criticism, Radar Derecting

Courtesy of the Defense Ministry’s Joint Staff Office
China’s aircraft carrier Liaoning

By Keiichiro Azuma / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

15:25 JST, December 8, 2025

BEIJING — China has not eased its criticism of Japan following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark regarding a survival threatening situation in connection with a possible Taiwan contingency. China’s radar directing on Air Self-Defense Force jets is seen as an attempt to further destabilize the Takaichi administration.

This is not the first instance of radar directing by the Chinese military. In January 2013, when Japan-China relations had been soured over Japan’s nationalization of the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, a Chinese Navy frigate directed its fire-control radar at a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer conducting surveillance in the East China Sea. Escalating military pressure against a backdrop of political conflict is a standard tactic of China.

Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning’s recent movements, for such reasons as their location, are likely part of exercises conducted with a Taiwan contingency in mind. In the event of a military invasion, China would have to deter Japanese and U.S. intervention in the waters east of Taiwan. The Chinese military has frequently crossed the First Island Chain, which extends from the Nansei Islands to Taiwan and on to the Philippine archipelago, to conduct drills in distant waters including the Pacific Ocean.

As neighboring countries grow increasingly wary of China’s expanding operational reach, the Chinese military is determined to not fully reveal its capabilities. In June, when a Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close to a MSDF patrol aircraft monitoring the Shandong aircraft carrier, which was conducting exercises in the Pacific, the Chinese defense ministry said, “Japanese interfered with our exercises.”

Japan is not the only target of dangerous actions by the Chinese military. Japan-U.S. partners such as Australia and the Philippines have been subject to such actions as flares being fired at their military aircraft.