October 29, 2026

As the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's Liaoning carrier group continues the training in the western Pacific, Japan's Defense Ministry Joint Staff has claimed it has spotted not only vessel movements but also military aircraft activities, mostly those of reconnaissance planes. Against the backdrop of a US-Japan joint exercise, a Chinese expert said the reconnaissance aircraft may be providing situational awareness and intelligence support for the carrier group, while Japan's sensationalism surrounding these reports is driven more by political convenience than by genuine security concerns.

On Thursday, when asked to comment on reports that Japan had released data showing that its Air Self-Defense Force had scrambled 442 times in response to Chinese and Russian military aircraft from April to September this year, an increase of nearly 70 percent from the same period last year, including 285 scrambles in response to Chinese military aircraft and 152 in response to Russian military aircraft, as well as the Japanese defense minister's claim that joint China-Russia patrols were a "show of force" against Japan, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang said that Japan was using its usual tactics to hype up the so-called security threats in its neighborhood.

This only served to confirm Japan's dangerous practice of frequently surveilling and harassing legitimate activities conducted by China and Russia, and exposed Japan's tendency to frighten itself with imagined threats, Zhang Xiaogang said. He urged Japan to stop playing such deceptive tricks and refrain from creating and hyping up tensions.

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