Japan, China trade barbs over fighter jet manoeuvres

BEIJING - Beijing condemned what it called "dangerous behaviour" by a Japanese military plane over the Pacific after Tokyo said Chinese fighter jets flew unusually close to its aircraft at the weekend.
The Japanese government had complained to China over the incident, in which no Japanese military personnel were reported injured.
A Chinese J-15 fighter jet from the Shandong aircraft carrier followed a Japanese P-3C patrol plane for 40 minutes on Saturday, according to the Japanese defence ministry.
Two J-15 jets then did the same for 80 minutes on Sunday.
"During these long periods, the jets flew unusually close to the P-3C, and they flew within 45 metres" of the patrol plane on both days, an official from the Japanese ministry told AFP.
Also on Sunday, Chinese jets cut across airspace around 900 metres ahead of a P-3C Japanese patrol plane at the same altitude -- a distance a P-3C can reach within a few seconds at cruising speed, Tokyo said.
"We do not believe that this approach was made by mistake," the Japanese military's chief of staff Yoshihide Yoshida told reporters on Thursday.
"Given it happened for 40 minutes and 80 minutes, for two days in a row, our understanding is that it was done on purpose," he said.
Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian hit back at the Japanese description of the events.
"The root cause of the risk to maritime and air security was the close reconnaissance of China's normal military activities by a Japanese warplane," he said.

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