China accuses Japan of threatening regional security after radar-lock incident

China has accused Japan of undermining regional security, calling on Tokyo to “immediately stop obstructing” its routine military drills and to abandon “misleading hype and political manipulation,” according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The statement came in response to remarks by Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, Xinhua reported. At an emergency press conference, he stated that on 6 December, Chinese J-15 fighter jets took off from the aircraft carrier Liaoning near Okinawa and twice locked their radars onto Japanese F-15s. He lodged a protest, calling the incident “dangerous actions that go beyond the bounds of safe aircraft operation.” According to Kyodo, Japanese fighters tracked the Chinese aircraft at a safe distance without attempting to provoke them.

China’s Foreign Ministry stated that the Japanese side is inflating the issue of “radar targeting,” deliberately distorting facts and shifting blame onto China in order to heighten tensions and mislead the international community.

Earlier, Wang Xuemeng, an official representative of the Navy of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said that Japan’s Self-Defence Forces aircraft had approached the waters and airspace east of the Miyako Strait, where routine training flights of carrier-based fighters from the Chinese carrier group led by the Liaoning were taking place. He stressed that the location of the drills had been announced by China in advance.

By Vugar Khalilov