Japan PM vows ‘resolute’ response after Chinese aircraft accused of locking radar on to Japanese fighter jets | Japan
Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi vowed to “respond calmly and decisively” after Chinese military planes were accused of twice locking radar on Japanese warplanes southeast of the main island of Okinawa over the weekend.
Takaichi told reporters on Sunday that Japan will take all possible measures to strengthen maritime and airspace surveillance and closely monitor the activities of the Chinese military amid worsening tensions between the two countries. China’s ambassador was summoned on Sunday.
Japan’s defense ministry said that a Chinese J-15 fighter jet belonging to the Liaoning aircraft carrier locked its radar on Japanese F-15s twice; at 16:32 and about two hours later on Saturday, Japan’s defense ministry. It was stated that visual verification was not possible due to distance and no damage or injuries occurred.
According to Japan’s Kyodo news agency, Japan’s defense ministry announced such an incident for the first time. Warplanes use their radars in search and rescue operations as well as identifying targets.
The Chinese navy said Tokyo’s claim was “completely inconsistent with the facts” and told Tokyo to “immediately stop slandering and slandering.” In the statement, it was stated that planes belonging to Japan’s self-defense forces (SDF) repeatedly approached the training areas and “seriously endangered flight safety.” According to Kyodo, there was no mention of radar locking.
China’s Xinhua news agency quoted a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman as calling on Japan to “immediately stop its dangerous moves to harass China’s normal military exercises and training.”
Relations between Beijing and Tokyo soured last month after Takaichi said an attack on Taiwan could trigger the deployment of his country’s self-defense forces if the conflict posed an existential threat to Japan.
Insisting that Japan could exercise its right to collective self-defense or come to the aid of an ally, Takaichi said Tokyo should “anticipate the worst-case scenario” in the Taiwan Strait. These remarks prompted Donald Trump to urge Takaichi to avoid further escalation of the dispute with China
Japan has long wrestled with the question of how to respond to a dispute between China and Taiwan, whose westernmost island in the East China Sea is just 100 km from Yonaguni.
Japanese defense minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on Sunday that Saturday’s incident was “dangerous and extremely regrettable.”
China’s ambassador Wu Jianghao was summoned on Sunday afternoon, where deputy foreign minister Funakoshi Takehiro “made a strong protest, stating that such dangerous actions are extremely regrettable,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
In a statement made late Sunday, it was stated that Funakoshi “strongly called on the Chinese government to ensure that similar actions are not repeated.”
There is a long-standing territorial dispute between the two countries over the Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China. The small, uninhabited islands lie between Taiwan and Okinawa, the much larger self-governing island also claimed by China.
Tokyo is deepening cooperation with US allies in the Asia-Pacific region, where many countries have territorial disputes with China.
Beijing, for example, claims almost the entire South China Sea and maintains stronger control over parts of the strategic waterway, despite an international ruling that its claim has no legal basis.
With Agence France-Presse
