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 an

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.