Chinese plane enters Japan’s airspace
Territorial dispute over islands back in the spotlight
Japan scrambled fighter jets Thursday after a Chinese government aircraft entered its airspace in an escalation of an already tense situation surrounding a disputed island chain.
Six F-15s took off from the main island of Okinawa Prefecture after the surveillance aircraft, belonging to the Chinese Oceanic Administration, was seen close to Uotsuri Island at 11:06 a.m.
The Senkaku islands, as they are known in Japan, are presently controlled by Tokyo but are claimed by both China, which marks them on its maps as the Diaoyu islets, and Taiwan.
The territorial dispute has been a periodic thorn in the side of Japan’s relationships with its neighbours ever since deposits of oil and natural gas were found beneath the seabed around the islands in the 1970s.
Beijing and Taipei both insist their claims are historic and that Japan illegally occupied the islands in the late 19th century. The issue was again brought to a head in April this year when Shintaro Ishihara, then the governor of Tokyo, announced that he was planning to buy the islands from their private owners and administer them from the Japanese capital.
The outcry was immediate and violent, with Japanese businesses and nationals attacked in cities across China. To thwart the nationalist governor’s plans, the Japanese government stepped in and purchased the islands, although Beijing and Taipei continue to demand talks over the sovereignty of the territory.
China has dispatched maritime survey vessels and warships to waters around the islands on an almost daily basis since the summer.
Later Thursday morning, four Chinese patrol vessels entered Japanese waters close to Uotsuri Island, according to reports from the Japanese coast guard.
The overflight of the islands by a reconnaissance aircraft — the first violation of Japanese airspace by a Chinese government aircraft since at least 1958, according to the Ministry of Defence in Tokyo — is a significant escalation of Beijing’s actions.
It also coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing massacre. Memorial events were held in the former Chinese capital for the vic- tims of a rampage by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1937.
Immediately after the Chinese aircraft had been identified over the Senkaku islands by a Japan Coast Guard patrol, Tokyo filed an official protest with Beijing.
Osamu Fujimura, the chief cabinet secretary, told reporters in Tokyo that the incident was “extremely deplorable.”
“We are determined to deal firmly with action that violates our country’s sovereignty, in accordance with domestic laws and regulations,” he said.
Han Zhiqiang, the acting Chinese ambassador to Tokyo, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to receive an official protest, although he declined to accept the protest and replied that the islands are Chinese territory.
Radar operated by Japan’s SelfDefence Forces failed to detect the aircraft, the Defence Ministry admitted. Yoshihiko Noda, the prime minister, has ordered government agencies to increase surveillance and warning capabilities.