Tensions rise as China’s Foreign Ministry responds to Japan’s claims of a Chinese military plane violating its airspace for the first time.
China’s Foreign Ministry is investigating a report from Japan about a Chinese military plane entering Japanese airspace, according to a ministry spokesman. He added that China does not plan to enter other countries’ airspace, adding both countries are in communication. Japan’s Ministry of Defence said a Chinese Y-9 reconnaissance plane had flown for about two minutes over the East China Sea in the vicinity of the Danjo islands north of Kyushu, westernmost islands of Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, on Monday morning. Fighter jets were scrambled, according to Japanese reports. The incident was totally “unacceptable and cannot be tolerated”, Yoshimasa Hayashi told the media. Japan summoned the acting ambassador of China to protest the incident.
Despite Japan’s strong protest, China asserts it has no intentions of infringing on other nations’ airspace.
Japan strongly denounced the intrusion of a Chinese military aircraft into its airspace as “utterly unacceptable” and a threat to security. This incident comes amidst tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea where Chinese ships regularly come near. Later on, China said it did not intend to invade the airspace of any country. The chief government spokesman for Japan termed this intrusion a grave breach of sovereignty by Japan and said this is both a grave threat to security and utterly unacceptable.
Stay informed about this developing diplomatic situation between China and Japan.
A report said a plane entered Japan’s airspace near the Danjo Islands, immediately sending out Japanese fighter jets. The Japanese ministry said they warned the plane but did not fire any weapons. The plane flew several circles in that area before returning to China. The vice-foreign minister of Japan summoned the acting ambassador of China and expressed “strong regret,” asking for measures to avoid such an incident again. The Chinese diplomat said they would report the situation to Beijing. Later, a Chinese spokesperson made it known that China does not want to enter the airspace of other countries and announced that they are looking into the incident. A Japanese defense source said that this may be a “provoke-to-respond” action by China, while another official in Tokyo said that the plane barely entered its airspace and may have done so accidentally.
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