Japan has summoned China’s ambassador over an incident in which Chinese military aircraft allegedly twice locked fire-control radar onto Japanese fighter jets, as tensions between the two countries surge.
The move by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday was to protest against what it called the dangerous and “extremely regrettable” behaviour of the Chinese J-15 fighter jets over international waters southeast of Okinawa’s main island the previous day.
It said China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier fighter jets aimed radar beams at Japanese aircraft scrambled to shadow the vessel – claims denied by the Chinese embassy.
Illuminating aircraft with radar signals a potential attack that could force targeted planes to take evasive measures, making it among the most threatening actions a military aircraft can take.
The summoning of Ambassador Wu Jianghao came amid deeply strained relations between Beijing and Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said last month that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan – suggesting that Tokyo would intervene militarily.
The comments by Takaichi, who entered office in October, have enraged Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island as its territory, and led to a furious diplomatic dispute.
Beijing has summoned the Japanese ambassador, written to the United Nations, urged citizens to avoid travelling to Japan and renewed a ban on Japanese seafood imports, while cultural events involving Japanese performers and movies have also been hit.
Takaichi’s “remarks, to Beijing’s ears, is a blatant intervention into China’s domestic own affairs,” Zichen Wang, a research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told Al Jazeera.
Credit: aljazeeraa.com
