Chinese Aircraft Flying Too Close To Japanese Aircraft
JAPAN has lodged protests to China after a statement from the defence ministry stated that a People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) JH-7 fighter-bomber flew as close as 30 metres to a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) YS-11EB ELINT (electronic intelligence) aircraft over the East China Sea in international airspace.
The Japanese release stated “Such unusual approaches by Chinese military aircraft could lead to an accidental collision, and we expressed serious concern and strongly requested that they be prevented from recurring.”
In response, the Chinese defence ministry said the PLAAF’s monitoring of the JASDF plane was legitimate and professional. A release read, “a JASDF reconnaissance aircraft repeatedly entered China’s East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) for close-in surveillance, and the Chinese military aircraft lawfully verified, identified, tracked and monitored the move, with all response measures being entirely justified, reasonable, professional, and up to standard.”
Several such encounters have occurred over the past few years, the more recent happening in early June when PLAAF J-15 fighters flew within 45 metres of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) P-3C Orion.
China’s expanding naval activities have been a source of growing concern for Tokyo, with the PLA Navy (PLAN) carrying out dual aircraft carrier drills in the Pacific for the first time last month.
Those drills included Shandong and Liaoning along with four other PLAN warships in Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around Japan’s southernmost and easternmost islands respectively.
China’s PLA spokesperson also added that the carriers were conducting routine training in the Western Pacific when “Japanese ships and aircraft repeatedly approached, harassed, and even deliberately created maritime and aerial safety risks. The Chinese carrier groups’ training activities were conducted in international waters, were not directed at any specific country or target, and fully complied with international law and international practice. The Chinese side’s measures in response to Japanese ships and aircraft forcibly entering its training area were reasonable, lawful, professional, and restrained throughout the process, said the spokesperson.”
Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Japan and China Takeshi Iwaya and Wang Yi met in Malaysia on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meetings, where the Japanese minister “expressed Japan’s serious concerns over the deteriorating situation in the seas and airspace around Japan, such as the situation in the East China Sea, including those situation surrounding the Senkaku Islands, citing incidents, for instance the intrusion of a China coast guard vessel’s helicopter into Japan’s territorial airspace, a Chinese military aircraft’s close approach toward a Self-Defense Force aircraft, the expansion of the aircraft carrier’s operating range and China’s unilateral development of natural resources in the East China Sea, and strongly urged the Chinese side to address these issues.”–shp/adj/dl (Pix:PMO)