The New York Times.
A Chinese military surveillance plane entered what Japan
considers its airspace near disputed islands on Thursday, the Japanese
Defense Ministry said, an escalation in an already tense standoff over
the territory. Japan scrambled fighter jets in response, but the Chinese
plane left before they arrived, according to Japanese authorities.
The ministry said the plane’s incursion was the first known violation of
Japanese airspace by a Chinese plane since it began keeping records
about 50 years ago. China considers the airspace its own, because it is laying claim to the islands that Japan has controlled for decades.
Tokyo lodged a formal protest with Beijing, which swiftly retorted that it was the Japanese who had encroached.
In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said that the
activities of the Chinese plane were “completely normal.”
“China requires the Japanese side stop illegal activities in the waters
and airspace of the Diaoyu Islands,” Mr. Hong said.
The episode comes just ahead of Japanese elections in which
conservatives pushing for a more robust military to counter China’s rise
are in the lead.
For months, patrol ships from the two countries have sporadically faced
off near the islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China,
exchanging protests over loudspeakers that each is infringing on the
other’s sovereignty. Recently, Chinese ships have sailed near the
islands more regularly in what analysts in Japan interpret as a new
strategy by China, either trying to wear down Japan’s resolve or to use
the patrols to bolster its claims that it is protecting the islands and
therefore is in charge.
It was unclear on Thursday whether the plane’s flight might have been
part of such a strategy. This week, China appeared to increase the
pressure on Japan by sending a flotilla of navy ships near the islands,
instead of the maritime surveillance ships it sent before.
