Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

China rejects Taiwan’s claim that planes breached airspace

BEIJING — China has rejected Taiwan’s claim that two Chinese military aircraft had breached Taiwan’s airspace four times, saying it had been a routine flight.

BEIJING — China has rejected Taiwan’s claim that two Chinese military aircraft had breached Taiwan’s airspace four times, saying it had been a routine flight.

Taiwan scrambled its jets to intercept two Chinese military aircraft, identified as Yun-8 transport aircraft, on Monday.

“We responded immediately, asking them to leave,” Taiwan Defence Minister Yen Ming said on Tuesday. The planes left without incident, Major-General Xiong Ho-ji of Taiwan’s Air Force Combatant Command told reporters on Tuesday.

“Our military aircraft carried out a routine flight on the 25th in the relevant airspace. There was no occurrence of any abnormality,” China’s Defence Ministry said.

The incident comes a week after a close encounter between United States and Chinese jets.

Tensions have remained between China and Taiwan, though economic relations have strengthened since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008. China still claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has indicated it will take it back by force if necessary.

As China’s military muscle increases, encounters with the militaries of other nations have been on the rise. US aircraft had at least two run-ins with Chinese jets this year prior to last week’s encounter and Japanese and Chinese planes and ships regularly tail one another around disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Last Tuesday, a Chinese fighter jet in international waters flew within 6m of a US Navy surveillance aircraft and did a barrel roll over it, in what the White House called a provocation. The US plane, a Boeing P-8 Poseidon submarine surveillance aircraft, was flying 217km east of Hainan Island, China’s main submarine base.

The Chinese navy fighter jet carried out a routine identification and verification operation, said Mr Yang Yujun, spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defence, adding that claims by the US that the Chinese action was provocative were groundless.

Mr Yang also called on the US to scale back its submarine surveillance in the area to avoid further incidents.

State media yesterday said the Chinese fighter jet’s interception of the US plane had been possibly triggered when American jet had dropped a sonobuoy — an underwater sonar surveillance system — into the South China Sea.

An anonymous military expert quoted by the Global Times said Chinese pilots had adopted a series of standard interception procedures after years of stand-offs with US aircraft. The source added that it was possible that the US plane had dropped a sonobuoy and that if this was the case, Chinese submarines that sensed a threat would have called for assistance.

The source said the dropping of the underwater sonar system would have been seen as a very serious act of provocation.

Chinese and US officials are meeting this week to discuss a military code of conduct for the region as part of an existing plan to avoid such incidents.

“Under no circumstances and under no rubric of military relations is it acceptable to fly a jet fighter around a reconnaissance airplane the way that was done,” Rear Admiral John Kirby said at a briefing on Tuesday in Washington. “That said, that doesn’t mean that the relationship isn’t still worth pursuing, and we continue to look for avenues to try to increase the dialogue, cooperation, understanding and transparency between our two countries.”

Rear Adm Kirby said the US would continue to fly in international airspace “the way we’ve been” doing. AGENCIES

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.