Chinese fighter jets were scrambled and followed US and Japanese planes that had entered the newly-proclaimed Chinese air defense zone in the disputed area of the East China Sea, Xinhua reports.
Two US surveillance aircraft and 10 Japanese F-15 jets were
‘tailed’ by Chinese pilots on Friday.
China ordered an urgent dispatch of its Su-30 and J-10 fighter jets to an area in the East China Sea after the foreign aircraft “invaded” the air defense zone, they said.
The reported intrusions came in defiance of the East China Sea
Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), established by Beijing
last week.
China’s move has triggered outrage from several states in the region and critical rhetoric from the US, as the vast zone covers disputed areas, including the islets claimed by both China and Japan.
Earlier on Thursday, the Chinese Air Force conducted its first
air patrol flights over the zone, as Japan and South Korea sent
their own military aircraft into the zone's airspace in an act of
defiance.
China has stressed its decision to enforce the airspace identification zone - which requires all aircraft flying over or near it to identify themselves - follows common international practices and “is a necessary measure in China’s exercise of self-defense rights.”
No international flights will be affected by the setup of the zone, Chinese Air Force spokesman, Shen Jinke, told Xinhua.
Japan and its US ally blasted the decision as “unacceptable” and rejected the “unilateral” declaration, saying it would create dangerous tension. However, Chinese officials gave a reminder that both countries have long had their own ADIZ, and that the Japanese never discussed theirs with their neighbor.
“If they want it revoked, then we would ask that Japan first
revoke its own air defense identification zone and China will
reconsider it after 44 years,” China’s Defense Ministry
spokesman, Yang Yujun, said in a statement posted on the
ministry’s website on Thursday.
While possible action against the zone’s infiltrators has been vaguely defined as “defensive emergency measures,” The Global Times, a Chinese state media newspaper, on Friday called for “timely countermeasures without hesitation,” should Tokyo violate the new ADIZ.
At the same time, the paper suggested China could ignore
violations by some other states, including the US. Two US
military B-52 bombers flew over the area on Monday without prior notice,
with a Pentagon spokesman telling Reuters we “have continued
to follow our normal procedures.”