China’s defence ministry confirmed that Chinese and Japanese fighter jets had a confrontation over disputed waters in the East China Sea last month.

Two Chinese jets were reportedly carrying out a routine patrol when two Japanese fighters approached at high speed, Beijing said Monday.

The incident took place in what the Chinese call the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (abbreviated ADIZ), covering most of the East China Sea where the People’s Republic of China announced that it was introducing new air traffic restrictions in November 2013.

According to the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, foreign aircraft in the zone will be expected to abide by the following:

  • Identification of flight plan. Any aircraft in the zone must report its flight plan to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Civil Aviation Administration.
  • Radio identification. Aircraft in the zone must maintain two-way radio communication and respond in a timely and accurate manner to inquiries
  • Responder identification. Any aircraft with an Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System transponder must keep it on during the aircraft’s time in the zone
  • Sign identification. Any aircraft in the zone must display insignia indicating its nationality and registration clearly, in accordance with international treaties
  • Aircraft in the zone should follow instructions. The Chinese military will adopt “emergency defensive measures” in response to aircraft that refuse to follow the instructions.

“Such provocative acts by the Japanese jets could easily cause accidents in the air, harming personal safety on both sides and destroying the peace and stability in the region,” a Chinese statement said. “We demand Japan to cease all provocative acts.”

Yohei Haneo, a spokesman for the Japanese defence ministry, on Tuesday denied the Japanese fighters took any provocative actions during the encounter, saying the jets were scrambling against Chinese aircraft.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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17 COMMENTS

  4. The Chinese shouldn’t be there in the first place. The Japanese had every right to respond. Chinese expansion needs to be checked at every opportunity.

  8. China has every right to assume it’s place as a superpower. Granted they aren’t going about it in the right way, but they’re only trying to reassert their authority in the region after centuries of humiliation and 70 years of American meddling.

  9. Agree Ross hendrie. Was out in China not too long ago and they are very much a passionate people fuelled by history, hatred and mass propaganda and in some places fear.

    The Japanese are stigmatised in the same way Europe did with Germany or continue to do so.

    China need only to look at where US forces are in Europe and beyond and recognise that the buck stops at S.Korea and Japan. Any further expansion is going to get nasty and we all know the north Koreans have twitchy trigger fingers and silently the Chinese are glad to have them.

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