US urged to stop 'provocative actions'

The United States has been shifting blame and attempting to hype up a non-existent "Chinese military threat" in order to smear China and advance its own political motives, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense said on Friday.

Zhang Xiaogang made the comments in response to US officials' recent accusations that China had taken increasingly coercive and risky actions in the East China Sea and South China Sea since 2021.

Zhang said the root cause of the China-US military security issue in the maritime and airspace realms stems from the US' provocative actions that stir up trouble "at the doorstep of China".

The US has engaged in "long-duration, large-scale, and high-frequency reconnaissance harassment in China's surrounding maritime and air spaces", Zhang explained.

Official figures show that, since the start of 2023, US reconnaissance aircraft have carried out more than 2,000 close-up activities. US warships have made two illegal intrusions into China's territorial waters off the Xisha islands. And US vessels have crossed the Taiwan Strait five times while openly bragging about their actions.

"We urge the US to stop misleading international public opinion with false narratives, stop close-up reconnaissance against China, strictly control and restrain front-line military activities, and refrain from any provocative actions, so as to avoid misunderstandings and misjudgments and to prevent accidents in the maritime and air space and maintain regional peace and stability," he said. "The Chinese military is always on high alert and resolutely defends national sovereignty, security, and maritime rights and interests."