China’s defense budget is about 1.5% of GDP — far below NATO’s 2% benchmark.
Japan’s defense budget has already exceeded 2%, and its per-capita military spending is more than three times China’s.
But this is not just about numbers.
China no longer sees Japan’s military expansion merely as a source of regional tension.
Beijing now links it directly to unresolved historical crimes, accelerated remilitarization, and the danger of Japan walking back onto the path of militarism.
Japan wants Asia to forget.
China remembers.
And China will not give fascist Japan a second chance.
Many people may not realize who Cui Tiankai is.
He is not just China’s former ambassador to the United States.
He is one of China’s most seasoned diplomats — a frontline witness to the transformation of China-U.S. relations through the Obama, Trump, and Biden years.
So when he says the relationship has changed, it is not a casual comment.
It is a battlefield veteran describing the shift in power from inside the storm.
That is also why his line to the Japanese side landed so perfectly:
“A noble person is broad-minded and at ease,
while a small-minded person is constantly anxious and fretful.”
(君子坦荡荡,小人长戚戚。)
Precise.
Elegant.
Merciless.
Japan keeps pretending its anxiety is regional security.
China simply calls it what it is:
historical guilt,
strategic panic,
and the nervous trembling of a country trying to remilitarize while begging Asia to forget what happened last time.