Japan has accused a Chinese spy plane of breaching its airspace, marking the first known instance of such a direct violation.
On Monday at 11:29 local time (02:29 GMT), Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Y-9 surveillance plane reportedly entered the territorial airspace of the Danjo Islands for approximately two minutes.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary condemned the breach as “utterly unacceptable” and summoned a Chinese embassy official in Tokyo to express the country’s protest.
This incident occurs amid escalating regional tensions, with China vying for influence against the US and its allies, including Japan.
Japanese authorities issued “notifications and warnings” to the Chinese aircraft during the incursion, but no defensive measures such as flare guns were employed, according to NHK.
The Japanese government has lodged a strong protest with Beijing through diplomatic channels, demanding measures to prevent future breaches. Beijing has yet to provide an official response.
Additionally, Japan has recently highlighted the presence of Chinese ships near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which are claimed by China and referred to as the Diaoyus.
These uninhabited islands, believed to have potential oil and gas reserves, are a point of contention between Beijing and its neighboring countries, many of which are US allies.
Tensions also extend to Japan’s Okinawa island, home to the largest US military base in the Asia-Pacific region, and to American military presence in Taiwan, the Philippines, and South Korea.
“This latest incursion may seem alarming as China tends not to venture directly into Japanese airspace,” Professor Ian Chong, a Chinese foreign policy expert at the National University of Singapore, told the BBC.
“Although it is consistent with China’s behaviour as regards Taiwan and the Philippines in recent years.”
In a single day last month, Taiwan’s defence ministry reported 66 incursions by Chinese military aircraft across the so-called ‘median line’ – an informal border between the two sides in the Taiwan Strait.
Beijing does not recognise the median line and, according to Taiwan, its planes have breached it hundreds of times in the past two years.
The Philippines, meanwhile, recently called China the “greatest disrupter of peace” in South East Asia.
Those comments followed a clash in a disputed part of the South China Sea on Sunday, over what Manila said was a resupply mission for fishermen.
“We have to expect these kinds of behaviour from China because this is a struggle,” said Philippines Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro.
“We have to be ready to anticipate and to get used to these kinds of acts of China which are patently illegal, as we have repeatedly said,” he told reporters on Monday.
The US national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, is in Beijing this week for talks with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi.
The two sides will discuss their differences over several flashpoints in the region and across the world.
“Washington probably will be looking at ways to avoid uncontrolled escalation, although this proposition can be difficult to put into practice,” said Professor Chong.