China's Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Chen Xi said on July 9 that
Japan's upper house recently passed an amendment to the Defense Ministry
Establishment Act renaming the Air Self-Defense Force the Air and Space
Self-Defense Force and creating a Space Operations Group. Chen said Japan has
openly treated space as an operational domain, increasing military investment in
related areas tenfold over five years and expanding operational forces by more
than 30-fold; he warned these moves accelerate space weaponization and a space
arms race and urged vigilance and measures to curb Japanese right-wing
remilitarization to protect global security.
