China's Defense Ministry accused Japan on Thursday of hypocrisy by opening a new base close to Taiwan and a group of islands disputed between Japan and China in the East China Sea at the same time as criticizing Beijing's actions in the South China Sea.
Japan this week switched on a radar station on Yonaguni, giving the nation a permanent intelligence gathering post in a strategic location.
The new Self-Defense Forces base on the island is at the western extreme of a string of Japanese islands in the East China Sea, 150 km south of the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China.