The Japanese government has protested against a Chinese surveillance aircraft that violated its airspace on Monday (26/8) and was expelled by fighter jets.
“A Chinese Y-9 reconnaissance aircraft circled over Danjo Island off the southwest coast of Japan’s southern Kyushu island for two minutes,” the Joint Staff of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces said, adding that officials were analyzing the latest Chinese military activity.
The Joint Staff said Japan scrambled fighter jets to warn the Chinese aircraft to leave the airspace.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano summoned acting Chinese Ambassador Shi Yong to strongly protest the airspace violation and called on China to take preventive measures to avoid similar incidents.
According to the Japanese military, it scrambled jets nearly 669 times between April 2023 and March 2024, about 70% of the total incursions against Chinese military aircraft, although that does not include airspace violations.
Japanese defense officials are increasingly concerned about increasing military cooperation between the Chinese and Russian air forces and China’s increasingly assertive activities around Japanese waters and airspace.
This has led Tokyo to significantly strengthen the defenses of southwestern Japan, including remote islands considered vital to Japan’s defense strategy in the region. (ABC News/Z-2)
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