The territorial violation by China is the latest in a series of events amplifying tensions between Beijing and Japan.
A Chinese military surveillance plane breached Japanese airspace off the country’s southwestern coast on Monday, marking what Japan’s defense ministry described as the first known incursion by China’s military into its territorial airspace.
According to a ministry official, a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft briefly entered Japanese territory near Nagasaki Prefecture around 11:30 a.m. on Monday. In response, Japan’s Self-Defense Force put fighter jets on high alert and issued a warning to the Chinese aircraft.
While Chinese planes frequently appear in international airspace around Japan, this incident represents the first confirmed entry of a military aircraft into Japan’s territorial airspace.
The Y9 in question here though is slow, fat, and low - max speed of 360kn and a service ceiling of 10,000m. It’s a cargo plane with EW stuff on it.
Then it seems like there’s a leap of logic between “cargo plane” and “reconnaissance aircraft”. Very possible it was just an inexperienced/behind schedule pilot cutting corners on the route.
Seems like a dick move to kill an entire plane full of people because someone decided to short-cut through your airspace.
Very possible it was just an inexperienced/behind schedule pilot cutting corners on the route.
In a vacuum, maybe. In the context of how China has been acting towards nearly all of their neighbors recently, not likely. This reeks of wolf warrior diplomacy.
In the context of how China has been acting towards nearly all of their neighbors
The Western reporting coverage of Chinese military operations is slanted to paint China as an aggressor, in the same way Western reporting of Iraq in the early 2000s was slanted to paint Iraqis as terrorists.
You don’t read about American military aircraft invading Japanese airspace because Japan is occupied territory. You don’t read about Taiwanese aircraft invading Chinese airspace, because there’s no defined territorial line between them on account of Taiwan being contested territory.
This reeks of wolf warrior diplomacy.
China sending a single Rambo-esque supersoldier in to liberate native peoples from an evil mercenary army?
Not a mistake anyone would make accidentally. They wouldn’t be allowed to fly near hostile territory without being well informed of the risks and consequences. This was a planned and deliberate action, or Chinas airforce is incompetent and can’t be trusted.
Both are dangerous and shouldn’t be tolerated in your territory.
Not a mistake anyone would make accidentally.
It’s a routine mistake that happens regularly, particularly when there is a large amount of traffic and a crop of younger personal.
Both are dangerous and shouldn’t be tolerated in your territory.
We’ve flipped from “China is being too hostile” to “The US isn’t being hostile enough”.
But it turns out they’re two sides of the same coin. Americans simply can’t get enough war.
Possible, but these are also the type of aircraft you would expect to see in mass during any naval conflict or blockading action against China. I believe the PLAAF/PLAN are working on their version of Rapid Dragon.
Relatively slow, but plentiful, cargo planes, would be a pretty obvious choice for launching a saturation attack against USN or Japanese forces operating outside the range of their land based missiles. Again, assuming they develop a similar system to Rapid Dragon.
