A Chinese military surveillance plane has “violated” Japanese airspace, prompting Japan to scramble its fighter jets to intercept the spy plane, the Japanese government announced Monday. A Chinese military intelligence-gathering plane entered Japanese airspace in territorial waters off the Danjo Islands, southwest of Japan’s southern mainland, Kyushu, between 11:29 a.m. and 11:31 a.m. on Monday, Japan’s Defense Ministry reported. Several Japanese media, including public broadcaster NHK, said the incident was the first time a Chinese military aircraft had violated Japanese airspace. There are several theories as to why a surveillance plane might have crossed into Japanese airspace. One possibility, some experts say, is that the Chinese aircraft wanted to activate its radar and communications systems to gather as much data as possible, a practice similar to what U.S. aircraft did on Soviet borders during the Cold War.
Others, however, believe it was a political gesture that shows total disregard for territorial borders. It is currently unclear whether the incursion was intentional, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian saying Tuesday that “the relevant departments in China are investigating what happened.” The Beijing government spokesman then added at a briefing: “I would like to emphasize that China has no intention of violating any country’s airspace.” Bonnie Glaser, a senior China expert at the German Marshall Fund in the United States, told Breaking Defense: “I cannot rule out that China acted deliberately, but it is also possible that the plane entered Japanese airspace by mistake.”
During the incident, Japanese authorities ordered the plane to leave. However, the crew ignored the warnings and continued to fly near Japanese airspace for several hours. Several news sources in Japan reported seeing a map showing the plane’s flight path. Masataka Okano, Japan’s vice foreign minister, summoned China’s acting ambassador on Monday evening, “to whom he expressed a strong protest,” and also called on China “to prevent future violations,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. China has sent government, non-military, aircraft into Japanese territorial airspace on two occasions in the past, both in disputed airspace near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Although Beijing has said it has no intention of violating any country’s airspace, China’s military assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific, where it has extensive territorial claims, has become a source of growing concern for the United States and China’s neighbors in the region, with clashes becoming more frequent.
@reproduction reserved
