The shifting relationship between China’s one-party government and the military is a "risk management issue" for Japan, while North Korea poses a "significant threat"

The shifting relationship between China's one-party government and the military is a "risk management issue" for Japan, while North Korea poses a "significant threat," Tokyo warned Tuesday.
  
In its annual defence report, Japan said the Chinese People's Liberation Army had been speaking out on foreign policy more frequently, a key shift in political-military ties that has set alarm bells ringing in Tokyo.
  
"Relations between the (Communist Party) leadership and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have been getting more complex," said the report published Tuesday, calling the shift a "risk management issue". "The degree of military influence on foreign policy decisions has been changing," it added.
  
Senior Chinese military officials have become more vocal, making public comments about US military drills in regional waters, for example, Japanese defence officials said at a briefing.
  
China has been embroiled in separate spats over regional territorial claims -- with Japan as well as with several Southeast Asian nations including Vietnam and the Philippines -- which have flared up in recent years. But the report also said the PLA may have limited influence, with the number of its personnel on key political decision-making bodies declining, as China readies for a once-in-a-decade leadership shuffle.
  
"As part of Japan's risk management, we recognise that the intention and purpose behind China's actions are becoming less predictable, which is a challenge when we address the country," said Toshinori Tanaka, director of the defence ministry's strategic intelligence analysis office.
  
Defence Minister Satoshi Morimoto added that "there is a certain degree of wariness, not only in Japan but in the whole of East Asia, as to which direction China will be heading".
  
Tokyo once again in this year's report described China's response to disputes with neighbours as "assertive", a description that raised eyebrows in Beijing when it was published in last year's report.
  
"China's (military) moves, together with the lack of transparency in its military affairs and security issues, are a matter of concern," the report added, noting that Chinese defence spending had grown 30-fold in the past two decades.