Japan's harassment of Chinese aircraft's legitimate operations exposed its paranoid self-intimidation, said a Chinese military spokesman on Thursday.
Japan's Air Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter aircraft 442 times from April 1 to Sept. 30 in response to Chinese and Russian aircraft, up nearly 70 percent compared with the same period last year, and of the 442 sorties, 285 involved Chinese aircraft, according to data released by Japan's Defense Ministry earlier this month.
Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, commented on the development at a regular press conference.
"It is a go-to tactic for Japan to play up so-called regional security threats by releasing such data in an alarmist manner and shifting the blame to smear China. This precisely proved Japan's dangerous moves of frequently snooping on and harassing the legitimate operations of China and Russia, and exposed its paranoid self-intimidation. We urge the Japanese side to stop such mystifying tricks and stop creating and fueling tensions," said Zhang.
Japan's harassment of Chinese aircraft exposes paranoid self-intimidation: military spokesman
