Japan summons China envoy over ‘fighter jet radar lock’ as tensions surge

Feuding countries commercialized accusations amid escalating quality pursuing Japanese PM’s comments astir Taiwan.

Japan has summoned China’s ambassador implicit an incidental successful which Chinese subject craft allegedly doubly locked fire-control radar onto Japanese combatant jets, arsenic tensions betwixt the 2 countries surge.

The determination by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs connected Sunday was to protestation against what it called the unsafe and “extremely regrettable” behaviour of the Chinese J-15 combatant jets implicit planetary waters southeast of Okinawa’s main land the erstwhile day.

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It said China’s Liaoning craft bearer combatant jets aimed radar beams astatine Japanese craft scrambled to shadiness the vas – claims denied by the Chinese embassy.

Illuminating craft with radar signals a imaginable onslaught that could unit targeted planes to instrumentality evasive measures, making it among the astir threatening actions a subject craft tin take.

The summoning of Ambassador Wu Jianghao came amid profoundly strained relations betwixt Beijing and Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said past period that a Chinese penetration of Taiwan would represent a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan – suggesting that Tokyo would intervene militarily.

The comments by Takaichi, who entered bureau successful October, person enraged Beijing and led to a furious diplomatic dispute.

Beijing has summoned the Japanese ambassador, written to the United Nations, urged citizens to debar travelling to Japan and renewed a ban connected Japanese seafood imports, portion taste events involving Japanese performers and movies have besides been hit.

Accusations traded

The incidental implicit the play provided a mounting for the latest flashpoint successful the tensions.

Both countries person traded quarrelsome accusations, with the Chinese Navy saying connected Sunday that the scrambled Japanese F-15s had repeatedly approached its grooming country and endangered formation safety, portion Japan’s main authorities spokesperson Minoru Kihara insisted connected Monday that those claims were unfounded.

Japan’s subject said astir 100 take-offs and landings had been conducted from the craft bearer arsenic it sailed eastbound into the Pacific Ocean past the Okinawa Islands implicit the weekend.

Japan would “respond calmly but firmly and proceed to show the movements of Chinese forces successful the waters astir our country”, Kihara said, rejecting China’s assertion that Japanese craft had obstructed harmless formation operations.

For its part, the Chinese embassy denied Tokyo’s claims, saying successful a connection that “China solemnly demands that Japan halt smearing and slandering, strictly restrain its frontline actions, and forestall akin incidents from happening again.”

Japan hosts the largest overseas deployment of the United States military, including thousands of US Marines stationed successful Okinawa.

Washington’s ambassador to Japan has voiced enactment for Tokyo successful the quality with Beijing, though US President Donald Trump, who is scheduled to question to China for commercialized talks adjacent year, has truthful acold stayed retired of the dispute.