China's Defense Ministry on Thursday criticized Japan's attempts to meddle in the South China Sea, which is increasingly becoming a destabilizing factor in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to a provision summary released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in early November, Japan is planning to provide coastal radar systems to the Philippine military, which will help improve its "maritime situational awareness" capability.

Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, stressed that defense cooperation among relevant countries should not harm the interests of third parties or jeopardize regional peace and security.

In recent years, he said, Japan has violated its domestic pacifist constitution, broken the exclusively defense-oriented strategy and continued to export weapons and equipment to foreign countries, moving farther and farther down the road of military expansion.

Zhang said that Japan is also trying to stir up the South China Sea situation by drawing up blocs in an attempt to subvert the post-World War II international order, and is increasingly becoming a destabilizing factor in the Asia-Pacific region, which deserves a high degree of vigilance from regional countries and the international community.