Latest news with #太平洋
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Japan Says Chinese Fighter Jet Flew Too Close to Its Military Plane
Japanese defense officials said on Thursday that a Chinese fighter jet had flown abnormally close to a Japanese military plane over international waters in the Pacific Ocean last weekend, raising concerns about China's growing military actions in the region. Japan's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that a Chinese J-15 fighter jet had made a peculiar approach to a Japanese P-3C patrol aircraft conducting surveillance over the Pacific. The Chinese jet flew as close as 150 feet next to the Japanese plane on Saturday, and cut in front within 3,000 feet of the nose on Sunday, introducing the likelihood of a crash, the Defense Ministry said. The Chinese fighter jet had originated from the Shandong, one of the two aircraft carriers that China had sent into the Pacific Ocean last weekend to conduct exercises, the first the carriers had done together so far from the Chinese coast. The exercises displayed Beijing's growing military reach. 'Japan expressed a serious concern and requested a prevention of reoccurrence of such incidents as it could trigger accidental collisions,' Gen Nakatani, Japan's defense minister, said in a security committee meeting at the Diet, as Japan's Parliament is known. Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, the chief of Japan's joint staff, told reporters on Thursday that he was concerned about the possibility of a collision between the Chinese jet, which appeared to be equipped with missiles, and the Japanese patrol aircraft. Gen. Yoshida said that it was difficult to judge the intention behind the Chinese jet's maneuvers and whether they were a threat. He said he was wary of the broader trend of China's increased and expanded military activities, stating that the Chinese military had been making unusual maneuvers 'intermittently and continuously.' China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, said on Thursday that the two countries' defense ministries were in communication over the near misses. But he suggested that Japan was at fault and defended China's activity in the airspace. 'Let me stress that the close maneuvers of the Japanese airplanes against China is the fundamental reason of such a situation,' Mr. Lin said at a news conference in Beijing. 'We hope that Japan will view the activities objectively and rationally.' In another aerial encounter involving the Chinese military, a Chinese fighter jet flew within 20 feet of an American military aircraft over the South China Sea in 2022, which the U.S. military said had nearly caused a collision. A crash involving a Chinese military plane was fatal in 2001, when a U.S. Navy surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea. The crash killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing in China. Meaghan Tobin contributed reporting from Taipei.
ABC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Japan says China is 'expanding' military presence in Pacific after aircraft carriers spotted in economic zone
Japanese authorities say they have spotted two Chinese aircraft carriers operating in the Pacific for the first time, with Tokyo saying it shows an expansion of Beijing's military operations. China said on Tuesday that the Shandong and Liaoning carriers, its only two currently in operation, with a third undergoing sea trials, were carrying out "routine training". "We believe the Chinese military's purpose is to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas," a Japanese defence ministry spokesman told AFP. Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters the sightings show that the Chinese military's "activity area is expanding". "Japan has expressed its position that the Chinese activities should not threaten Japan's safety" through diplomatic routes to Beijing, Mr Nakatani said. He added that the Japanese military would continue to closely monitor and patrol the operations of Chinese naval warships. A spokesperson for Beijing's navy called the ships' activities "routine training" meant to test troops' defence capabilities, in an online statement. When asked about the moves at a regular news briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian reiterated a statement given the previous day about the Liaoning's trip. "The activities of Chinese warships in the relevant sea areas are fully in line with international law and international practice," he said, adding that Japan should "take an objective and rational look at this issue". China's use of naval and air assets to press its territorial claims has rattled the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region. The Australian navy monitored three Chinese ships which sailed east of Sydney earlier this year. On Monday, the Shandong sailed inside the Japanese economic waters surrounding the remote Pacific atoll of Okinotori, Tokyo's defence ministry said. It was accompanied by four other vessels including a missile destroyer, and fighter jets and helicopters conducted take-offs and landings there, having also been seen sailing through Pacific waters on Saturday. The ministry previously said that China's other operational carrier Liaoning and its fleet entered Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Pacific over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets. Japanese and US defence officials say China wants to push the American military out of the so-called "first island chain" from Japan down through the Philippines. Eventually, its strategy is to dominate areas west of the "second island chain" in the Pacific between Japan's remote Ogasawara Islands and the US territory of Guam, they say. The Liaoning's recent cruise eastwards marked the first time the Japanese defence ministry has said a Chinese aircraft carrier had crossed the second island chain. Daisuke Kawai, director of the University of Tokyo's economic security research programme, told AFP these activities represent "a highly significant strategic escalation". In September, the Liaoning sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan and entered Japan's contiguous waters, an area up to 24 nautical miles from its coast. At the time, Tokyo called that move "unacceptable" and expressed "serious concerns" to Beijing. Under international law, a state has rights to the management of natural resources and other economic activities within its EEZ, which is within 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) of its coastline. Mr Kawai said the anticipated commissioning of Beijing's third aircraft carrier, named Fujian, later this year means that "China's maritime operational tempo and geographic scope of influence will significantly increase". And the timing of the sailings could be linked to the broader context of US-China economic tensions. "Senior US policymakers, including President Trump himself, have shifted their focus from strategic containment of China toward securing economic compromises," he said. "Thus, Beijing calculated that the United States would be less willing or able to respond militarily at this precise moment, seeing it as an opportune time to demonstrate its expanding military capabilities." AFP/ABC
