Chinese fighter jets accused of threatening to attack Japanese fighters

Japanese media said that a Japanese plane was "simulated to attack" by Chinese fighter jets in the East China Sea.

According to Japan Times, in an article on the Japan Business Press website yesterday, Mr. Kunio Orita, former commander of the Japan Air Force Support Command, recounted this event.

China's J-10 fighter jet Photo: Business Insider

Orita said Japanese fighter jets operating over the East China Sea were forced to take evasive action after Chinese fighter jets made a maneuver that looked like they were preparing to attack. However, Orita did not specify the date and time of the incident. A senior Japanese defense official confirmed to Kyodo News that Orita's information was true.

The Japanese aircraft took evasive action because the pilots did not want the incident to turn into a dogfight that “could escalate into an unexpected situation,” Orita said. The Japanese pilots then “activated a self-defense device,” which could have been a heat-seeking decoy to fool the enemy’s heat-seeking missiles.

Mr. Orita said that in previous encounters, Chinese fighters usually kept a certain distance from Japanese aircraft and only made annoying moves. "This time, the situation has completely changed," he wrote.

Orita, a former fighter pilot, said such aerial encounters could escalate into skirmishes or missile strikes.

"The government needs to take this incident seriously and ask China to exercise restraint and not cause similar incidents," Mr. Orita said.

The story was first made public in Japanese media amid continuing tensions between Tokyo and Beijing over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Japan accused Chinese warships of approaching Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea on June 9 and June 15.

According to VNE