Oct 29 — At a routine press briefing the Chinese Ministry of National Defense
rebuked Tokyo’s characterization of recent Sino‑Russian patrols as a “show of
force,” after the Japan Defense Ministry said the Japan Air Self‑Defense Force
scrambled aircraft 442 times from April–September (285 encounters with Chinese
aircraft, 152 with Russian). Ministry spokesman Col. Zhang Xiaogang called
Tokyo’s data release an attempt to inflate regional security threats, accused
Japan of frequent surveillance and harassment of legitimate Chinese and Russian
operations, and said the episode exposed a Japanese “persecution complex.”
Beijing urged Japan to stop publishing such figures and refrain from stoking
tensions.
