Mon, Dec 08, 2025 page2

• Chinese fighter conduct is show of hostility

  PLAYING WITH FIRE: Locking up aircraft with targeting radar is not the sort of things sensible nations generally go around doing, but China has a history of it

  • By Chen Yu-fu and Sam Garcia / Staff reporter with staff Writer
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  The act of a Chinese fighter jet locking up a Japanese military aircraft with its targeting radar was a show of hostility meant to test Tokyo’s limits, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday.

  Japan-China relations are strained after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi implicated last month that a Chinese attack on Taiwan threatening Japan’s survival could trigger a Japanese military response.

  On Saturday, in two separate incidents, a Chinese J-15 multirole fighter directed fire-control radar at Japanese aircraft over international waters near Okinawa. Japan protested to China over the radar lock-up, calling it “a dangerous act that exceeded the scope necessary for safe aircraft operations.”

  

  This image provided by Japan’s Ministry of Defense shows a Chinese J-15 fighter jet over the Pacific on June 8.

  Photo: AP

  Commenting on the incident, National Defense University professor Holmes Liao (廖宏祥) said in Taipei yesterday that fighter jets mainly use wide-area radar to search for other aircraft, or highly focused radar to track one target.

  Once an aircraft’s radar warning receiver detects a highly focused, locked-on signal tracking it, it immediately classifies it as a top-level threat and sends out an alert, Liao said.

  The aircraft being tracked would evade and even counterattack to defend itself, he said.

  China locking onto a specific Japanese aircraft is not routine, but an open display of hostility meant to test Japan’s limits, he said.

  This is not an isolated case, but a “gray zone” tactic Beijing has long employed in the Indo-Pacific region, Liao said.

  China deployed similar tactics against a Japanese military vessel and helicopter in 2013, he added.

  Liao cited other similar incidents, noting two acts of aggression by the Chinese military towards Australian aircraft over international waters in 2022.

  By repeatedly carrying out high risk actions that fall below the threshold of war, Beijing seeks to change the status quo and push neighboring countries to see such provocations as the new normal, eventually giving up on countermeasures, Liao said.

  It tests the response of the US, Japan and other regional allies, to see how much the US intervenes and supports threatened allies, he said.

  It is a psychological warfare tactic meant to put pressure on servicemembers on the front lines, he added.

  Taiwan cannot be indifferent to these “gray zone” threats and can learn from the way Japan quickly released information about China’s actions, Liao said.

  The Ministry of National

  Defense should release information about China tracking Taiwanese aircraft or making dangerous approaches to control the narrative, he said.

  Liao said that Taiwan and Japan are both facing an increasingly aggressive China.

  Taiwan should strengthen

  intelligence-sharing with the US, Japan, Australia and the Philippines, so that when one ally is threatened, the whole alliance is on alert, Liao said.

  Taiwan must maintain strong counterintelligence to prevent Chinese espionage from undermining cooperation, he said.

  The government should educate people about “gray zone” tactics, as modern warfare often involves psychological and information warfare in addition to missiles and bombs, Liao said.

  If people understand that using radar in this way is a probe rather than a precursor to war, there would be less panic and more willingness to resist, he said.

  Regional peace requires transparency, restraint and genuine dialogue, not political, economic and military pressure, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) said yesterday, urging China not to escalate the situation.

  Chinese aircraft locking up Japanese aircraft with radar is an aggressive, dangerous act, likely to cause misunderstandings and accidental clashes, he said.

  Japan is being targeted today, but tomorrow it could be any country traveling through the Indo-Pacific, Chen said.

  China’s actions towards Japan, including restricting travel and imports, have disrupted regional trade and stability and escalated tensions, making neighboring countries more wary and eroding China’s international credibility, he added.

  China must be made to understand the consequences of its actions to prevent the situation from escalating further, Chen said, adding that Taiwan would cooperate with Japan and other countries to defend regional security.

  Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan and AP
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