Japan Scrambles Jets after Chinese Overfly Senkakus
Quote:
A Chinese military surveillance plane entered what Japan considers its airspace near disputed islands on Thursday, the Japanese Defense Ministry said, an escalation in an already tense standoff over the territory. Japan scrambled fighter jets in response, but the Chinese plane left before they arrived, according to Japanese authorities.
The ministry said the plane’s incursion was the first known violation of Japanese airspace by a Chinese plane since it began keeping records about 50 years ago. China considers the airspace its own, because it is laying claim to the islands that Japan has controlled for decades.
Tokyo lodged a formal protest with Beijing, which swiftly retorted that it was the Japanese who had encroached.
In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said that the activities of the Chinese plane were “completely normal.”
“China requires the Japanese side stop illegal activities in the waters and airspace of the Diaoyu Islands,” Mr. Hong said.
The episode was an embarrassment for the administration in Japan, already struggling in national polls, since radar systems failed to detect the Chinese surveillance plane on Thursday. The authorities in Tokyo became aware of its presence only after a Japanese Coast Guard ship spotted it near the islands.
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I also recommend reading Jane Perlez's piece from yesterday's Times on
why China continues to support North Korea despite considerable unease about that nation's behavior within the ranks of the Chinese government.