Japanese defense officials said on Thursday that a Chinese fighter jet had flown abnormally close to a Japanese military plane over international waters in the Pacific Ocean last weekend, raising concerns about China’s growing military actions in the region.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that a Chinese J-15 fighter jet had made a peculiar approach to a Japanese P-3C patrol aircraft conducting surveillance over the Pacific.
The Chinese jet flew as close as 150 feet next to the Japanese plane on Saturday, and cut in front within 3,000 feet of the nose on Sunday, introducing the likelihood of a crash, the Defense Ministry said.
The Chinese fighter jet had originated from the Shandong, one of the two aircraft carriers that China had sent into the Pacific Ocean last weekend to conduct exercises, the first the carriers had done together so far from the Chinese coast. The exercises displayed Beijing’s growing military reach.
“Japan expressed a serious concern and requested a prevention of reoccurrence of such incidents as it could trigger accidental collisions,” Gen Nakatani, Japan’s defense minister, said in a security committee meeting at the Diet, as Japan’s Parliament is known.
Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, the chief of Japan’s joint staff, told reporters on Thursday that he was concerned about the possibility of a collision between the Chinese jet, which appeared to be equipped with missiles, and the Japanese patrol aircraft.
Gen. Yoshida said that it was difficult to judge the intention behind the Chinese jet’s maneuvers and whether they were a threat. He said he was wary of the broader trend of China’s increased and expanded military activities, stating that the Chinese military had been making unusual maneuvers “intermittently and continuously.”
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, said on Thursday that the two countries’ defense ministries were in communication over the near misses. But he suggested that Japan was at fault and defended China’s activity in the airspace.
“Let me stress that the close maneuvers of the Japanese airplanes against China is the fundamental reason of such a situation,” Mr. Lin said at a news conference in Beijing. “We hope that Japan will view the activities objectively and rationally.”
In another aerial encounter involving the Chinese military, a Chinese fighter jet flew within 20 feet of an American military aircraft over the South China Sea in 2022, which the U.S. military said had nearly caused a collision.
A crash involving a Chinese military plane was fatal in 2001, when a U.S. Navy surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea. The crash killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing in China.
Meaghan Tobin contributed reporting from Taipei.
Hisako Ueno is a reporter and researcher based in Tokyo, writing on Japanese politics, business, labor, gender and culture.
John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news.
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