Japan urges China to stop flying fighter jets too close to Japanese military aircraft

Japan has demanded China to stop flying its fighter jets abnormally close to Japanese intelligence-gathering aircraft, which it said was happening repeatedly and could cause a collision.

Japan's defense ministry said a Chinese JH-7 fighter-bomber flew as close to 30 metres (98 feet) to a YS-11EB electronic-intelligence aircraft of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force on Wednesday and Thursday. The ministry said it occurred outside Japanese airspace over the East China Sea and caused no damage to the Japanese side.

China had no immediate comment on the latest incident.

Previously, Beijing has alleged Japan flew close to its aircraft and was spying on China's ordinary military activity and demanded Japan stop its actions.

Japan is concerned about China's acceleration of its military buildup, especially in Japan's southwestern areas.

Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Thursday that its vice minister Takehiro Funakoshi expressed “serious concern” to Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Jianghao and strongly requested Beijing to stop the activity that could “provoke accidental collisions” and strongly urged China to ensure that similar actions are not repeated.

The countries traded accusations over similar close encounters last month. Japan said a Chinese combat aircraft flew extremely close to Japanese navy P-3C surveillance aircraft over the Pacific Ocean, where two Chinese aircraft carriers were seen operating together for the first time.