Currently JMX has a depenedencies on the JavaBeans API (which in turn has a dependency on applet, AWT, and other classes). Here are the specific dependencies:

com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.DefaultMXBeanMappingFactory$CompositeBuilderViaConstructor -> java.beans.ConstructorProperties (beans)
com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.Introspector -> java.beans.BeanInfo (beans)
com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.Introspector -> java.beans.Introspector (beans)
com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.Introspector -> java.beans.PropertyDescriptor (beans)
javax.management.JMX$MBeanOptions -> java.beans.BeanInfo (beans)
javax.management.JMX$MBeanOptions -> java.beans.Introspector (beans)
javax.management.JMX$MBeanOptions -> java.beans.PropertyDescriptor (beans)

This bug seeks to eliminate these dependencies. The context for this request is JDK modularization where it may be desirable to have a "management" module that supports monitoring and management of the VM without requiring that all Java SE modules be installed.
Now that JSR-255 has been backed out of jdk7 we are left with the following dependencies:

com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.DefaultMXBeanMappingFactory$CompositeBuilderViaConstructor -> java.beans.ConstructorProperties (beans)
com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.Introspector -> java.beans.BeanInfo (beans)
com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.Introspector -> java.beans.Introspector (beans)
com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.Introspector -> java.beans.PropertyDescriptor (beans)