http://www.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20130113a7.html
China sends fighter jets to shadow F-15s
State-run paper warns nations near threshold of confrontation
Bloomberg
China scrambled two J-10 fighter jets to the East China Sea on
Thursday to monitor a pair of Air Self-Defense Force F-15s that were
shadowing one of Beijing's patrol aircraft, the Chinese Defense
Ministry reported on its website.
The Chinese aircraft was conducting routine patrol duties near oil
and gas fields east of the coastal city of Wenzhou, the ministry said
in a statement posted online Friday.
The ASDF's F-15 fighters "trailed and interfered with" the Chinese
planes, which were conducting regular military patrol exercises, the
ministry said, arguing Thursday's incident underscores the alleged
increased surveillance activities by the Self-Defense Forces against
China.
The Chinese J-10s also monitored a Japanese reconnaissance plane in
the same airspace, it said.
China will "resolutely defend the safety of its territorial air space
and the rightful privileges under international law," the ministry
stressed.
The incident marks a further escalation in the dispute that erupted
between the two countries in mid-September over the Senkaku Islands.
The uninhabited islet cluster in the East China Sea is administered
by Japan, but China also claims the chain, which it refers to as
Diaoyu.
"China and Japan may stand at a turning point that leads to
confrontation," China's state-run Global Times newspaper said in an
editorial Friday. "The resentment toward each other has come to the
highest level since World War II. The Sino-Japanese relationship is
looking dim."
Hong Lei, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, meanwhile used a
press briefing in Beijing the same day to pin the blame for the
"current difficulty" between the two sides squarely on Japan.
Relations between the world's second- and third-biggest economies
went into a severe tailspin after the ousted Democratic Party of
Japan-led government purchased some of the islets Sept. 11 from their
Japanese owner, a businessman in Saitama Prefecture. Despite calls
for calm and restraint from both countries, the repercussions show no
sign of letting up.
The Japan Times: Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013
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