‘Provocative actions’: China confirms military encounter with Japanese jets in East China Sea ADIZ

The Chinese defence ministry said on Monday that two Su-30 fighter jets encountered “provocative actions” by a pair of Japanese F-15 jets in the air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea last month, confirming an earlier claim by a retired Japanese officer.

The Japanese jets beamed their fire-control radar to the Chinese ones, but the F-15Ss flew off after the Chinese side “took action” during the incident on June 17, the ministry said in a statement, without giving further details.

“The provocative actions by the Japanese jets could easily trigger an air accident and harm the safety of both crews, and jeopardise regional peace and stability,” the statement said.

It is the first confirmation from Beijing of the incident in the ADIZ, which was revealed last week by a former senior officer with the Japan Air Self-Defence Force. That claim was later denied by deputy chief Cabinet secretary Koichi Hagiuda.

The statement about the incident comes after Japan’s top military commander accused China of escalating military activity in the East China Sea, saying Japanese emergency scrambles to counter Chinese jets almost doubled for the past three months.

Japanese Self-Defence Force chief Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano said last week that Japanese jets were scrambled around 200 times in the three months to Thursday, compared with 114 times over the same time a year earlier.

“It appears that Chinese activity is escalating at sea and in the air,” Kawano said.

Japan is embroiled in a dispute with China in the East China Sea over ownership of a group of islands about 220km northeast of Taiwan known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyus in China.

Japan is worried that Beijing is escalating its activity in the East China Sea in response to Tokyo’s pledge to support countries in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Vietnam, that oppose China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.

(Source : scmp.com)

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