China adds 20 Japanese groups to export blacklist as row over security policy deepens

# China adds 20 Japanese groups to export blacklist as row over security policy deepens

China has added 20 Japanese organisations to its export control blacklist and placed another 20 on a watchlist, escalating a dispute that has already spilled into travel advice, rare earth politics and regional defence ties.

The measures were announced on June 29 by China’s commerce ministry and reported by AFP via The Straits Times. Beijing said the newly listed organisations had taken part in strengthening Japan’s military capabilities. The ministry said exporters now have to submit risk assessments and guarantees that dual-use items will not be used to enhance Japanese military power before shipments can go ahead. Groups on the watchlist can apply for removal if they cooperate with verification procedures under Chinese law.

The names included the National Institute for Defence Studies and Mitsubishi Electric Defence and Space Technologies Corporation, according to the report. The list also covers subsidiaries and technology firms that supply components and engineering support to Japan’s defence sector. China’s move lands in a broader context of tightening controls over materials and technologies with both civilian and military uses.

The timing is significant because China remains the world’s biggest producer and refiner of rare earths, a resource central to electric vehicles, smartphones, missile guidance systems and lasers. That dominance has already become a geopolitical pressure point as Japan, the United States and other countries seek to reduce dependence on Chinese supply chains. The blacklisting gives Beijing another lever in a dispute that is no longer limited to trade policy.

Tokyo responded immediately. Japan government spokesman Minoru Kihara described the measures as unacceptable and deeply regrettable, and said Japan had lodged a strong protest and demanded that they be withdrawn. The exchange underlines how quickly the bilateral relationship has deteriorated, with security concerns now tied directly to economic and industrial policy.

The latest move also fits a pattern of mutual suspicion over military posture in the region. AFP reported that the row with Tokyo intensified after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Japan might react militarily to an attack on Taiwan. China reacted by urging its citizens to avoid Japan and by adding pressure through export restrictions earlier in the year. Beijing’s latest blacklist expansion appears designed to reinforce that message without resorting to broader trade sanctions.

At the same time, Japan has been moving in the opposite direction, loosening export rules on lethal weaponry and deepening military cooperation with partners in the region that also have tensions with China, including the Philippines. China’s commerce ministry accused Japan of “straying further down the wrong path” and intensifying what it called a new form of militarism.

The dispute unfolded alongside separate regional military alerts. Japan and South Korea both scrambled fighter jets after joint Chinese and Russian bomber patrols over the weekend, and Japan said it had seen repeated long-range air activity near its waters since late 2025. That wider backdrop makes the export blacklist more than a customs measure: it is another signal that economic restrictions are being folded into strategic competition.

For now, the policy affects named organisations rather than broad sectors. But the signal is clear. Beijing is using dual-use controls as a foreign policy tool, Tokyo is treating the move as coercive, and neither side is showing signs of backing away from the larger security dispute shaping the relationship.