A senior Chinese defense official on Wednesday dismissed recent Japanese criticism of China's defense budget and the hype-up a so-called "China threat" as excuses for Japan's own military expansion.

Following the release of China's 2026 defense budget details, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara claimed that China is rapidly increasing defense spending and developing its military "without transparency."

Senior Colonel Jiang Bin, a spokesman for China's Ministry of National Defense, said, "We have released information regarding the specifics of China's 2026 defense budget, making public its size, composition, and allocation and leaving no room for doubt."

Jiang added that China's defense spending accounts for less than 1.5 percent of its GDP, far lower than major military powers like the United States and below both the global average and the NATO benchmark of over 2 percent of GDP.

"The increase in China's defense budget is characterized by a reasonable, moderate, and restrained growth," Jiang said. "Such increase is solely meant to meet the needs of safeguarding China's sovereignty, security, and development interests, and of maintaining world peace and stability. The stronger the Chinese military is, the more secure the world would be."

Jiang called Japan's warnings about a "China threat" "nothing more than 'a thief crying stop thief,'" and said they are intended to justify Tokyo's ambitions for military expansion.

He cited Japan's history of aggression, noting that international agreements including the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender require Japan to remain disarmed and prohibit it from maintaining industries that could support rearmament.

Jiang pointed out that Japan's defense budget has grown for 14 consecutive years, rising more than 60 percent over the past five years to reach 2 percent of GDP, with per capita military spending more than three times that of China.

"The Japanese side is making drastic efforts to break away from the constraints of its pacifist constitution. It has developed and deployed offensive weapons far beyond the needs for exclusive defense, and pursued re-militarization without ever reckoning with its past atrocities. These are the real threat to regional peace and stability," Jiang said. "We urge the Japanese side to look at itself in the mirror more often, stop its misleading smearing campaigns, and never repeat the doomed mistake of militarism."