Tokyo yesterday summoned the Chinese ambassador to Japan, as the two sides traded blame for a near collision involving fighter jets over the East China Sea, the second such incident to occur in less than a month.
In the latest confrontation in a long-running territorial dispute, Tokyo says two Chinese Su-27 jets flew as close as 30m to its aircraft in a spot where the two countries’ air defense zones overlap.
“It was an action that was extremely regrettable and which cannot be tolerated,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Wednesday.
It was the second time in less than three weeks that Tokyo has accused Beijing of playing chicken in the skies near the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) controlled by Japan, which calls them the Senkakus and disputes their sovereignty with Taiwan and China, both of which claim the chain.
Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Akitaka Saiki, called China’s ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua (程永華) to the ministry, where he said similar incidents “could lead to a real accident,” Kyodo news agency said.
China hit back, insisting that Japanese pilots had been at fault and that Tokyo was lying to the international community about Beijing’s behavior.
“The Chinese pilot’s operation was professional, standard and maintained restraint. The Japanese pilot’s practice was dangerous, and obviously provocative in nature,” the Chinese Ministry of Defense said on its Web site.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said Japan has “hyped up this incident and the so-called ‘China threat.’”
“[Japan has] deliberately deceived the world. So we can’t help but wonder what is the true intention of Japan,” she added.
The site also carried video footage purporting to show two Japanese F-15 jets approaching a Chinese TU154 plane on Wednesday, disrupting its safe flight.
Japanese Minister of Defencse Itsunori Onodera said he saw the clip and “there was no truth behind what the Chinese side stated.”
The incident occurred as Japan and Australia held the fifth round of “2+2” talks between their defense and foreign affairs chiefs.
The two sides struck an agreement on a legal framework to conduct joint research and trade in defense equipment, with Australia yesterday backing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s drive to expand the use of Japan’s military, hailing it as a “more normal defense posture,” which China says is really a bid to remilitarize Japan.
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