( dpa ) - Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura expressed concern Sunday at the lack of transparency in China's military expenditure.
"We believe that China's military modernization is still not sufficiently transparent," Koumura told delegates attending a high- profile security conference in the German city of Munich.
Noting that Chinese military spending had performed a double-digit expansion for the 19th year in a row, Koumura called on Beijing to provide a "more detailed explanation about the composition of its military expenses."
Ensuring transparency, he said, "fosters mutual confidence and leads to regional stability. Military modernization and expansion of military expenses with a lack of transparency will result in increased regional concern."
The Japanese foreign minister also complained about human rights violations in North Korea, as well as its failure to provide correct details about its nuclear programmes.
And he called on China and Taiwan to avoid "unilateral" attempts to change the status quo. Such attempts, he said, "would heighten cross-strait tensions and cause harm to regional stability."