Beijing defends maneuver against Japanese aircraft

The Chinese government defended this Sunday the approach of a Chinese fighter jet to a Japanese military aircraft in international waters in the East China Sea. A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman assured that the maneuver was "legitimate, reasonable, and professional."

The incident occurred on Wednesday when a Chinese JH-7 fighter-bomber approached a Japanese YS-11EB electronic intelligence aircraft at a distance deemed unsafe by Japanese authorities, who lodged a formal protest with Beijing over the maneuver.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Jiang Bin said Japanese reconnaissance aircraft entered the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone on "multiple occasions" to conduct "close reconnaissance."

This air zone – which includes the Senkaku Islands, administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing under the name Diaoyu – was unilaterally announced by China in 2013 and is not recognized by neighboring Japan and South Korea.

"Chinese military aircraft, in accordance with the law, carried out identification, tracking, and surveillance checks, and all corresponding actions were completely legitimate, reasonable, professional, and in accordance with regulations," Jiang Bin said.

The spokesperson stressed that such "approach and interference" activities by Japanese ships and aircraft "are the root cause of the risks to air and maritime security between China and Japan."

"We hope the Japanese side will move in the same direction as China and create an environment conducive to the stable development of bilateral relations," Jiang said, in remarks quoted by Chinese state television CCTV.

In early June, a similar incident occurred in international waters in the Pacific, when a Chinese J-15 fighter jet, armed with missiles, taking off from the aircraft carrier Shandong, came within just 45 meters of a Japanese military plane.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the Maritime Self-Defense Force's P-3C maritime patrol aircraft was carrying out a surveillance operation over the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese government expressed “grave concern” to China over this incident and demanded that measures be taken to prevent a recurrence.

Also in June, Japan expressed concern about increased Chinese military maneuvers near its territory, leading it to release, in an unusual manner, detailed information about these activities.

The Chinese Navy's two aircraft carriers, the Shandong and the Liaoning, "carried out about a thousand combat aircraft landings" between late May and mid-June, the Japanese Defense Minister revealed.

Gen. Nakatani explained that one of the ships approached the islands of Iwojima and Santon and carried out more than 100 takeoffs and landings of planes in the Japanese exclusive economic zone near Okinotori, Japan's southernmost island.