Japan's harassment root cause for China-Japan safety issues

Japan recently published its last quarter's so-called statistics on Japanese military aircraft scrambling to conduct surveillance, tracking or interception against Chinese military aircraft.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense stated that the number of Japanese military aircraft scrambling to cope with Chinese aircraft was increased 29% to reach 103 times from July to September this year, accounting for over half of its total military aircraft operations this quarter.

Japan's practice of publishing data about the scrambling of military aircraft against a specific country every three months started in 2001, which has given the international community the delusion that Japan is under the military threat from its neighboring countries, especially China.

Yet a closer analysis would show that such a disgusting behavior of Japan disregards the facts and calls black white with the aim of deluding the international community, smearing the image of the Chinese military and creating regional tension.

The ultimate purpose is to create excuses for Japan to break the limitation of the "peace constitution" and energetically develop aggressive military power, while transferring and mitigating the pressure it faces from challenging China and other neighboring countries on territorial and historical issues.

First of all, the Chinese aircraft always carry out normal flight according to law.

The data published by Japan exactly indicates that the frequency of its tracking, surveillance and interference of Chinese aircraft is on the rise. Such action is the root cause for air safety issues between China and Japan.

According to the data published by Japan, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) flew 107 sorties of combat aircraft against Chinese aircraft in 2005, which increased sharply to 306 sorties in 2012 and reached a new high of 415 sorties in 2013.

Second, it is exactly the Japanese aircraft's constant close-in reconnaissance and interference of Chinese vessels and aircraft carrying out normal activities along the Chinese coast and on the high seas that seriously endangers China's national security and vessel and aircraft safety.

Statistics show that Japanese aircraft carry out about 500 sorties of close-in reconnaissance on China every year, and Japanese vessels and aircraft have also conducted constant close-range interference in the normal voyage and training of the Chinese vessels and aircraft.

On June 11 this year, two F-15 combat aircraft of the JASDF carried out close-in tracking of a Chinese T-154 aircraft that was on a normal flight in the airspace near the Chinese coast, only about 30 meters from the Chinese aircraft at closest. What the Japanese pilots did was extremely dangerous and obviously provocative, which seriously affected the flight safety of the Chinese aircraft.

In the past two years, Japanese combat aircraft have repeatedly tracked and interfered in unarmed Chinese official airplanes on normal cruising flight.

Third, the Chinese aircraft dealt with by Japanese military aircraft have never entered Japanese airspace, but were on normal and legal flight above or near China's territorial waters or above the high seas.

For instance, the Japanese Ministry of Defense admitted that even though it flew 340 sorties of combat aircraft to cope with aircraft from China and other countries that were considered "likely" to enter the Japanese airspace from April to June this year, a historical record for the same period, none of those foreign aircraft ever really entered the Japanese airspace.

On March 9 this year, the Japanese Ministry of Defense released the news that it discovered that in the very morning two H-6 bombers and a Y-8 Airborne Early Warning Aircraft (AEW) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) flying over the high seas between the main island of Okinawa and the Miyako Island and returning after flying from the East China Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The JASDF's combat aircraft scrambled to cope with the situation but the Chinese aircraft never entered the Japanese airspace.

The Japanese vessels and aircraft have conducted close-in reconnaissance on China and close-range tracking, surveillance and interference of Chinese vessels and aircraft for a long time.

Such actions seriously endanger China's national security and vessel and aircraft safety, and are the root cause for safety issues at sea and in air between China and Japan. Japan should respect relevant international laws and take concrete and effective measures to prevent any military conflict with China.