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China issued a “strong protest” after a Japanese destroyer, travelling to military exercises in the Philippines, passed through the Taiwan Strait on the anniversary of an 1895 treaty ceding the island to Japan.Friday’s voyage was a “deliberate provocation”, said Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry. The 14-hour passage by the JS Ikazuchi “once again exposes the dangerous plot of some people in Japan to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait and undermine peace and stability there”, he said.China also sent a naval deployment on a training exercise in the western Pacific on Sunday after the Ikazuchi’s voyage reheated a diplomatic row sparked by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s suggestion in November that the nation could become involved in a Taiwan Strait conflict. The first trip through the Strait by a Japanese warship since Takaichi took office in October coincided with the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki or Treaty of Maguan, under which the then-ruling Qing dynasty handed Taiwan to Japanese colonial rule (see SMCP Plus FactSheet).This timing “harmed the feelings of the Chinese people”, the PLA Daily, China’s military mouthpiece, said on Saturday. “This is not just a ‘grey zone’ tactic; it is an act that heightens global vigilance against Japan’s ‘new militarism’”.Japan’s Self-Defence Forces declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on the day of the sailing.The Ikazuchi is one of three Japanese ships taking part in the US-Philippines Balikatan exercise, running from April 20 to May 8. Japanese ground forces will also be involved in the annual exercise for the first time.Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state.Related news: China for the first time said it sent naval vessels through the heavily guarded Yokoate Channel, which is closer to the Japanese mainland than the Miyako Strait typically used for access to the western Pacific. The task group, led by the Type 052D destroyer Baotou, was to transit between Japan’s Amami Oshima and Yokoate islands, before conducting training in the western Pacific, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement on Sunday. The “routine” exercise is designed to test the navy’s far-seas operational capabilities and is “not directed at any specific country”, it said. Takaichi last week reiterated that she wants to make the first revision to Japan’s pacifist constitution. “An independent constitutional amendment by the hands of the Japanese people is our party’s long-cherished goal,” Takaichi said at party conference last week. She didn’t elaborate on potential changes. Japan renounces war and the use of force in international disputes under Article 9 of its post-World War II constitution. Amendments require support from two-thirds of both houses and then a simple majority in a national referendum. Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have a two-thirds majority in the lower house following a landslide election in February. China made a protest about a New Zealand military aircraft monitoring potential North Korean sanction violations at sea. The P-8A anti-submarine plane “conducted continuous close-in reconnaissance and harassment in the airspace and waters of the Yellow Sea and East China Sea”, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday. The New Zealand military said that its aircraft crew “operated professionally and in accordance with international law”. There is no evidence to suggest disruptions to civil aviation, it said. New Zealand has regularly taken part in sanctions-monitoring flights since 2018, with planes operating from the US Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa. How others reported it Resolute actions: The United States regularly sends warships through the Taiwan Strait to assert freedom of navigation in international waters. While Japan has not officially announced the passage, it appears to have been carried out on the belief that the country should take more resolute actions to counter China’s growing assertiveness. (Kyodo) Security challenge: “Facing an acute security challenge in the South China Sea, the Philippines is expanding its security partnerships and includes Japan among them. The security environment in the South China Sea has drastically changed the Philippines’ threat perception”, [said Yusuke Takagi, an associate professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Japan]. ... Takagi predicted this year’s Balikatan exercises will not be “a game-changer” in escalating tensions in the South China Sea and East China Sea, adding, “It’s already tense.” (Nikkei Asia) New order: In Taipei, national security expert Chen Wen-chia said that, at the military level, the transit of the Japanese warship reflects a combination of “freedom of navigation” and joint operations, indicating that Tokyo is gradually treating the Taiwan Strait as a routine route in Indo-Pacific security operations rather than a highly sensitive restricted zone... The key message of Japan’s passage through the strait is that Indo-Pacific security is shifting from being US-led to being jointly shared among allies, he said, adding that Japan has become an active participant and shaper of the Indo-Pacific strategic order. (Taipei Times) Need cooperation: The United States needs Korea and Japan not because it loves alliances, but because it cannot effectively compete with China without them. There is also an uncomfortable truth that many in Seoul and Tokyo do not want to hear: If South Korea and Japan cannot work together, their value to the United States declines. (Korea Times, opinion) Militarism revival?: For many in the Asia-Pacific region, the sight of Japanese warships operating assertively beyond Japan’s territorial waters is not easily divorced from the past. The optics can feel unsettlingly familiar – like hearing Umi Yukaba, a popular song associated with the Imperial Navy of Japan in World War II stressing loyalty to the Emperor and readiness to die, played in a new key. The rise of a new type of militarism in Japan has shown the potential to mislead the country to repeat its history. That should invite scrutiny and vigilance of the region and beyond. What Japan seeks is by no means “normalization” but a break from its postwar restraints. (China Daily) The SCMP Plus takeawayThe US war with Iran had pushed the ongoing row between China and Japan into the background. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Self-Defence Forces have moved it back to the front burner.The JS Ikazuchi rekindled the dispute by making just the fourth trip through the waterway by a Japanese warship since 2024. The timing of the voyage – on the anniversary of a Qing era treaty that ceded Taiwan to Japan back in 1895 – only added to China’s complaints.Tensions have been high between the two Asian powers since November, when Takaichi suggested Japan’s military could intervene in any conflict in the Taiwan Strait, the first time a sitting prime minister had made a public declaration about the island. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory to be reunified by force if necessary.China’s heated complaints about Takaichi have had surprisingly little impact on trade with Japan. Imports surged 29 per cent in the first quarter to US$44.7 billion led by semiconductor manufacturing goods. Shipments the other way also rose 7 per cent to US$40.5 billion, fuelled by electronics and EV batteries.Chinese tourism to Japan has tumbled amid government advice against travel to the country. Still, Japan has more than weathered the slump by increasing visits from elsewhere in the world.Frictions are likely to remain on the boil. The Ikazuchi was on its way to the Philippines to take part in the annual Balikatan – Tagalog for “shoulder to shoulder” – military drills involving about 20 nations including the US, Philippines, Australia and France.Japan’s Self-Defence Forces have upped the ante this year by contributing 1,400 personnel, warships and aircraft to the exercises. Its contribution, including the third-most troops behind the US and Philippines, is a significant step up from previous years. Last year, it sent ships for the first time and before that only observers.Part of the impetus for Japan’s stepped-up military activity comes from Washington. US President Donald Trump is demanding that allies increase military spending and shoulder more of their defence burden, including in the Indo-Pacific region. Japan has been at the forefront of this trend, with Takaichi pledging to raise defence spending to 2 per cent of gross domestic product.Indonesia took a step towards boosting its defence capabilities last week, signing a cooperation partnership with the US that will help with modernisation, training and operations. The US has also asked for a blanket right to operate military flights in Indonesia airspace, boosting its ability to monitor the Malacca Strait, a vital waterway that handles about 40 per cent of global trade and 80 per cent of Chinese oil imports.Australia on Saturday signed a contract with Japan covering the first three of 11 warships to be delivered under a US$7 billion defence deal. The nation is also working with the US and UK on nuclear submarines. Trump confirmed that the Aukus plan would go ahead in December after a six-month Pentagon review into whether the deal fit with his “America First” agenda.Japan supplying warships to Australia is grist to the mill for Chinese state media’s complaints about Japanese “militarism”, as are Takaichi’s efforts to amend Japan’s pacifist constitution in order to clear up “legal controversies” surrounding the nation’s armed forces. China suffered a brutal occupation by Japan during the Second World War.Takaichi’s two-thirds supermajority in Japan’s lower house is a big boost to her amendment plans, if not definitive, given the need for a referendum. Still, China will be watching closely.