India, Jan. 27 -- In December 2024, Japan's Ministry of Defence, through its influential think tank, issued a report that presents an unflinching look at China's meteoric rise and its implications for the global balance of power. Titled The Rising Global South and China, the report offers a sobering analysis of how China's strategic outreach to the Global South-its diplomacy, economic investments, and military presence-poses not only a challenge to the existing international order but also to Japan's place in the world. While the report forms a key element in Japan's evolving worldview regarding its neighbour, it is but one piece of a much larger, more complex puzzle.

The evolving dynamics between China and Japan demand a deeper explorat...