China rejects accusations in Japan defense report

"The ultimate objective of Japan is to cook (up) excuses for adjusting by leaps and bounds its military and security policies and accelerating its arms expansion, even rewriting the pacifist constitution," the statement said, referring to legislation passed last year that loosened post-World War II constraints on the Japanese military.

The statement also reiterated China's claim to disputed East China Sea islands controlled by Japan and said it was the Japanese government that altered the status quo by purchasing the chain from its private Japanese owners in 2012.

[...] China has routinely dispatched coast guard vessels and patrol planes to the area and a Chinese navy warship recently entered a strip of water just outside Japanese-claimed waters.