China's export control on Japan justified against remilitarization

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China's decision to place 20 Japanese entities on its export control list is not an impulsive act of economic nationalism. Rather, it is entirely justified, reasonable, and lawful that is aimed at curbing Japan's remilitarization.

Japan in recent months has been revising its security posture, expanding defense spending, and acquiring military capabilities that go well beyond the pacifist spirit of its post-war constitution. The country's draft budget for fiscal 2026 allocates roughly 9.04 trillion yen ($58 billion) to defense, the highest level on record.

Worse still, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has blatantly provoked China on its Taiwan region, hinting at the possibility of armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait. She also suggested Tokyo and Washington could take joint action in any Taiwan crisis, pledging Japan would never abandon its ally.

Alongside its military build-up and provocative remarks, Japan is deepening its integration into US-led nuclear and extended deterrence frameworks. The two countries reaffirmed their "shared determination to further enhance the alliance's deterrence and response capabilities" during the Extended Deterrence Dialogue in Washington last week.

For any regional player, a neighbor that is boosting defense spending, acquiring long-range strike capabilities, relaxing arms export rules and tightening nuclear deterrence cooperation with Washington looks less like a purely defensive actor and more like a state on a path toward remilitarization.

Given the above, China's export control is thus a reasonable and justified response to security realities. The affected firms sit close to Japan's industrial and aerospace complex, including subsidiaries of Kawasaki Heavy Industries and IHI Corporation. These are the sectors in which the line between civilian and military use is usually blurred, from precision components for aircraft to advanced materials for naval platforms.

Effective immediately, Chinese companies are no longer allowed to ship dual-use goods to the entities on the list, and overseas suppliers are likewise barred from providing them with any China-made dual-use products. For China, allowing unconstrained flows of Chinese-origin dual-use components into such entities would be strategically naïve and dangerous.

But it is worth noting that China's export controls are directed only at a small number of Japanese entities and apply solely to dual-use items. They do not affect normal economic and trade exchanges between China and Japan. Japanese entities that act in good faith and in compliance with the law, as China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) noted, have no cause for concern.

Entities listed on the watch list may apply for removal after fulfilling their verification obligations in accordance with relevant regulations, according to the MOFCOM announcement. This means China's export control measures are not blanket embargos. Instead, they point to a targeted and adjustable step focused on particular categories of risk.

By targeting dual-use flows and leaving broader commercial trade intact, the Chinese government has managed to balance its two imperatives: defending its security interests while avoiding decoupling that could harm its own exporters and global markets.

Therefore, China's control measures against certain Japanese entities are not an act of economic nationalism as some Westerners hype. They are grounded in law and framed in non-proliferation and national security terms. They respond to a strategic environment in which Japan is shifting away from its pacifist, post-war posture to remilitarization and rearming under the umbrella of a US-led security architecture that openly treats Beijing as its "threat."

The author Jianxi Liu is a Beijing-based analyst of political and international relations. With 10 years of experience in media, she writes on topics pertaining to the US, the EU, and the Middle East.

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