Oct 29 — At a routine briefing, Chinese defense ministry spokesman Zhang
Xiaogang criticized recent US‑Japan Lijian‑27 joint exercises, saying they
focused on island seizure. He said Japan deployed a Type‑25 land‑based anti‑ship
missile to the drills and the US Marine Corps’ expeditionary shipboard intercept
system was for the first time deployed to Yonaguni Island, the island closest to
Taiwan. Zhang said Japan’s alignment with certain countries, development of mid‑
and long‑range missiles, and strengthened military deployments on the southwest
islands amount to re‑militarisation and are becoming a real security threat to
the region. He reiterated that Taiwan is an internal Chinese matter, warned
external forces not to interfere, and cautioned that attempts to use Taiwan to
contain China or to carry out military provocations would meet China’s firm
resolve, strong capability and would exact an unbearable price.
