Chinese jets fly as close as 45 metres to Japanese patrol planes in Pacific
TOKYO/BEIJING: Chinese fighter jets flew unusually close to Japanese military patrol planes over the Pacific last weekend, Tokyo said, after it spotted two Chinese aircraft carriers simultaneously deployed in the waters for the first time.
While Beijing said its military activities were "fully in line with international law" and asked Japan to stop its "dangerous" reconnaissance, Japanese and US officials have seen the jets' actions as another sign of the Chinese military's growing assertiveness beyond its borders.
Tokyo has "expressed serious concern ... and solemnly requested prevention of recurrence" to Beijing, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Thursday, referring to the June 7–8 incidents in which Japan said Chinese jets flew as close as 45 metres (148 feet) to Japanese planes.
On Saturday, a Chinese J-15 jet from the aircraft carrier Shandong chased a Japanese P-3C patrol aircraft for about 40 minutes, Japan's defence ministry said. On Sunday, a J-15 chased a P-3C for 80 minutes, crossing in front of the Japanese aircraft at a distance of only 900 metres, it added.
A spokesperson at the ministry's Joint Staff Office declined to disclose whether the same planes were involved in the incidents on both days.
The P-3C aircraft, belonging to a Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force fleet based on the island of Okinawa, were conducting surveillance over international waters in the Pacific, according to the ministry.
"Such abnormal approaches by Chinese military aircraft could potentially cause accidental collisions," the ministry said in a Wednesday statement, attaching close-up images of the missile-armed J-15 jet it took on Sunday. There was no damage to the Japanese planes and crew, it added.
In response, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular press conference that "the close-in reconnaissance by Japanese ships and planes of China's normal military activities is the root cause of the risk to maritime and air security.
"The Chinese side urges the Japanese side to stop such dangerous behaviour."
Earlier this week, Tokyo said the Shandong and another Chinese carrier, the Liaoning, were conducting simultaneous operations in the Pacific for the first time. Beijing has said the operations were a "routine training" exercise that did not target specific countries.
The Chinese presence in the sea and airspace in the southeast of the Japanese island chain has put Tokyo and its ally Washington on heightened alert, as Japan pursues its biggest military build-up since World War Two in the wake of the intensifying security environment in East Asia, including over Taiwan.
"Our sense of urgency is growing," General Yoshihide Yoshida, Chief of Staff of Japan's Joint Staff, told a briefing.
"As evident in the South China Sea, the Chinese military has unilaterally changed the status quo through force wherever their military influence extends ... we will maintain a deterrent posture not to allow these actions normalised," added Yoshida, Japan's highest-ranking uniformed officer.
"The recent dangerous manoeuvre by a Chinese fighter jet that put Japanese crewmembers' lives in peril must be another of Beijing's 'good neighbour' efforts," US Ambassador to Japan George Glass said in an X post.
"Whether it's harassing Philippine ships, attacking Vietnamese fishermen, or firing flares at Australian aircraft, Beijing knows only reckless aggression," Glass added, citing recent incidents in the South China Sea.
In 2014, Tokyo said it spotted Chinese military aircraft flying as close as 30 metres to its military aircraft over the East China Sea and protested to Beijing.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
9 hours ago
- The Star
China and Philippines report encounter in South China Sea
BEIJING/MANILA (Bloomberg): China's coast guard said it drove away a Philippine ship around Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, the latest friction in a longstanding rivalry in the strategic waterway. "The China Coast Guard gradually took necessary measures such as shouting warnings, following and forcing, and water cannon warnings to drive away the Philippine ship,' it said in a statement. The Philippine coast guard said its Chinese counterpart harassed the vessel that was distributing fuel to Filipino fishing boats around the Scarborough Shoal, which is located within Manila's 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. "Despite these aggressive actions, including blocking maneuvers and a water cannon attack that briefly struck the port quarter of BRP Datu Taradapit, the vessel adeptly maneuvered away to avoid significant damage,' it said in a statement late Friday. China has deployed large coast guard ships and a maritime militia in parts of the South China Sea. To maintain its presence in the waterway, the Philippines supports Filipino fishers by regularly distributing fuel, food and other supplies. Since taking office in 2022, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos has bolstered relations with the US and other countries in an effort to counter China's expansive and competing claims in the South China Sea, which were invalidated by an international arbitration ruling in 2016. The strategic waterway is believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves, and is a channel for trillions of dollars of sea-borne trade. --With assistance from Andreo Calonzo.-- ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
The Sun
10 hours ago
- The Sun
Russia's Sechin says China is moving towards exporting energy
ST PETERSBURG (Russia): Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, one of the most influential men in Russia's energy sector, said on Saturday that China was seeking complete energy independence and that in the foreseeable future it could become a major energy exporter. China's economic and military rise over the past 45 years is considered to be one of the most significant geopolitical events of recent times, alongside the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union which ended the Cold War. Sechin said that a massive increase in electricity consumption was changing the entire landscape of the global energy markets as populations soared in Africa and Asia and the digital revolution triggered massive demand for power. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Sechin said that China accounted for a third of global investment in the energy sector, was ramping up renewable energy capacity and was now one of the leaders in nuclear power. 'China, which has already ensured its energy security, is confidently moving towards complete energy independence, forming a stable energy balance based on its own resources,' Sechin said in a speech which referenced both Greek mythology and Niccolo Machiavelli. 'There is no doubt, taking into account the persistence and professionalism of our Chinese comrades, that in the foreseeable future they will achieve the desired result, which will turn China from an importer of energy resources into a major energy exporter.' China is currently the world's largest importer of crude oil and a major importer of natural gas. Russia is the world's second largest oil exporter and holds the world's largest reserves of natural gas. Sechin, who worked alongside Vladimir Putin in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg and later under the president in the Kremlin, has run Rosneft since 2012. Rosneft accounts for about 40% of Russian oil production, 14% of the country's gas production and 32% of the refinery market. It is also the biggest Russian exporter of oil to China. Sechin said that the decision by OPEC+ to speed up an output increase now looked far-sighted and justified in the light of the confrontation between Israel and Iran. He added that the OPEC+ group could bring forward its output hikes by around a year from the initial plan. He drew attention to the vast U.S. debt pile, warning that great powers from Habsburg Spain and pre-Revolutionary France to the Ottoman Empire and Britain had declined due to high levels of public debt. The expansion of the Western military-industrial complex was diverting enormous resources away from productive sectors and unlikely to be a panacea for the problems in Europe or the United States, Sechin said. 'There is always an asymmetrical answer,' he added. But his focus was on China's role, giving the example how the growth in the sales of electric vehicles had resulted in significant slowdown in motor fuel demand over the last year. 'If this trend continues – it may have a significant reverse impact on the oil market balance,' Sechin said. He added than an important part of China's strategy to reduce dependence on energy imports was the processing of coal into synthetic fuels and chemical products. About 40 million tons of coal is used to produce synthetic fuels and more than 260 million tons for ammonia and methanol production, he said.
The Sun
10 hours ago
- The Sun
Rosneft CEO: China on track to become energy exporter
ST PETERSBURG (Russia): Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, one of the most influential men in Russia's energy sector, said on Saturday that China was seeking complete energy independence and that in the foreseeable future it could become a major energy exporter. China's economic and military rise over the past 45 years is considered to be one of the most significant geopolitical events of recent times, alongside the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union which ended the Cold War. Sechin said that a massive increase in electricity consumption was changing the entire landscape of the global energy markets as populations soared in Africa and Asia and the digital revolution triggered massive demand for power. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Sechin said that China accounted for a third of global investment in the energy sector, was ramping up renewable energy capacity and was now one of the leaders in nuclear power. 'China, which has already ensured its energy security, is confidently moving towards complete energy independence, forming a stable energy balance based on its own resources,' Sechin said in a speech which referenced both Greek mythology and Niccolo Machiavelli. 'There is no doubt, taking into account the persistence and professionalism of our Chinese comrades, that in the foreseeable future they will achieve the desired result, which will turn China from an importer of energy resources into a major energy exporter.' China is currently the world's largest importer of crude oil and a major importer of natural gas. Russia is the world's second largest oil exporter and holds the world's largest reserves of natural gas. Sechin, who worked alongside Vladimir Putin in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg and later under the president in the Kremlin, has run Rosneft since 2012. Rosneft accounts for about 40% of Russian oil production, 14% of the country's gas production and 32% of the refinery market. It is also the biggest Russian exporter of oil to China. Sechin said that the decision by OPEC+ to speed up an output increase now looked far-sighted and justified in the light of the confrontation between Israel and Iran. He added that the OPEC+ group could bring forward its output hikes by around a year from the initial plan. He drew attention to the vast U.S. debt pile, warning that great powers from Habsburg Spain and pre-Revolutionary France to the Ottoman Empire and Britain had declined due to high levels of public debt. The expansion of the Western military-industrial complex was diverting enormous resources away from productive sectors and unlikely to be a panacea for the problems in Europe or the United States, Sechin said. 'There is always an asymmetrical answer,' he added. But his focus was on China's role, giving the example how the growth in the sales of electric vehicles had resulted in significant slowdown in motor fuel demand over the last year. 'If this trend continues – it may have a significant reverse impact on the oil market balance,' Sechin said. He added than an important part of China's strategy to reduce dependence on energy imports was the processing of coal into synthetic fuels and chemical products. About 40 million tons of coal is used to produce synthetic fuels and more than 260 million tons for ammonia and methanol production, he said.
