Japan, China Fight Over Airspace as Broader Tensions Rise

Japan and China are trading protests after defense officials tattled on Chinese J-15 fighter jets for using Japanese F-15s to practice their fire-control radar locking skills over international waters… twice. China met the claims of “dangerous” encounters with a protest of its own, accusing Japan of disrupting training operations and manipulating the truth.

Japan’s Ministry of Defense said that the incidents occurred on December 6 during Chinese naval drills with the Liaoning aircraft carrier. They claim that fighter jets from the carrier directed radar at Japanese aircraft at 16:32 and again at 18:37 local time, prompting Japan to scramble more fighters. The incident drew widespread attention after Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada came out with strong accusations that labeled the encounter as “dangerous”.

China was quick to reject the accusation. Defense ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang countered that the Liaoning’s carrier group was conducting routine training in a designated and publicly announced exercise zone, but was repeatedly interrupted by Japanese aircraft entering the area. Zhang said that Japan was simply “making false accusations after the fact” to shift the blame away from its own error.

The confrontation is just the latest development in a long list of back-and-forths. The situation took a plunge last month after Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae posed that Japan could intervene if China launched an attack on Taiwan, which was taken by Beijing as hostile and destabilizing.

Recent maritime encounters have also fueled the dispute. Japan recently scrambled aircraft after detecting what it believed was a Chinese drone near Yonaguni, the island closest to Taiwan. Tokyo’s plans to deploy additional missile defenses there have further fueled the controversy.

The ongoing strain is beginning to affect daily life as well as regional security. China has advised its citizens to avoid traveling to Japan, halted imports of Japanese seafood, and paused screenings of Japanese films. Meanwhile, Japanese officials insist their aircraft acted professionally during the Okinawa incident and did nothing that could be interpreted as a provocation.

FMI: www.mod.go.jp