Japan has accused a Chinese reconnaissance plane of violating its airspace, in what would be the first known direct violation of its kind.
At 11:29 local time on Monday (02:29 GMT), about two minutes after a Y-9 reconnaissance plane “violated the airspace of the Danjo Islands”, Japan scrambled fighter jets.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary called the violation “completely unacceptable” and summoned an official from the Chinese embassy in Tokyo in protest.
The incident comes as tensions rise in the region, with China vying for influence with the United States and its allies including Japan.
According to Japanese broadcaster NHK, Japanese authorities issued “notices and warnings” to Chinese aircraft during Monday’s incursion, but did not use weapons such as flare guns.
Still, the incident drew attention.
The Japanese government said it had contacted Beijing through diplomatic channels to strongly protest the intrusion and demanded that such violations be prevented in the future. Beijing has yet to issue an official response.
Tokyo has also recently pointed to the presence of Chinese ships on the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which China claims as its own and which Beijing calls the Diaoyu Islands.
The islands are uninhabited but may contain oil and gas reserves and are one of several sources of tension between Beijing and its neighbors, most of whom are U.S. allies.
The other is the Japanese island of Okinawa, home to the largest U.S. military installation in the Asia-Pacific region. There are also US troops stationed in Taiwan, the Philippines and South Korea.
Professor Ian Chong, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the National University of Singapore, told the BBC: “The latest intrusion seems alarming because China does not tend to venture directly into Japanese airspace.”
“Although this is consistent with China’s behavior on Taiwan and the Philippines in recent years.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense reported that Chinese military aircraft crossed the so-called “central line” – the informal boundary between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait – 66 times in one day last month.
Beijing does not recognize the center line, and according to Taiwan, its aircraft have breached it hundreds of times in the past two years.
Meanwhile, the Philippines recently called China “the biggest peace destroyer” in Southeast Asia.
The comments came after Sunday’s clashes in disputed waters in the South China Sea, which Manila said were on a resupply mission for fishermen.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said: “We have to expect such actions from China because this is a fight.”
“As we have said repeatedly, we must be prepared to anticipate and get used to this type of behavior from China, which is clearly illegal,” he told reporters on Monday.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing this week.
The two sides will discuss their differences on several hot-button issues in the region and around the world.
“Washington may look for ways to avoid an uncontrolled escalation, although this proposal may be difficult to put into practice,” Professor Zhuang said.
Additional reporting by Chika Nakayama in Tokyo
