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Japan's self-defense force F-15 fighter-jet takes off from a base in Miyazaki Prefecture, in 2004/AFP

World

Japan scrambles fighter jets after China air breach

“As China has publicly said it will make this a permanent situation, we are preparing to be better equipped for this long, drawn-out contest,” Takashi Kitamura, the commandant of Japan Coast Guard, told a news conference.

“Because we have various other responsibilities other than patrolling for border security, we are asking government to consider building up our capacity,” he said.

Chinese government ships have moved in and out of waters around the islands for more than two months – four vessels were there for several hours on Thursday.

Such confrontations have become commonplace since Japan nationalised the East China Sea islands in September, a move it insisted amounted to nothing more than a change of ownership of what was already Japanese territory.

But Beijing reacted with fury, with observers saying the riots that erupted across China had at least tacit backing from the Communist Party government.

Mitsuyuki Kagami, an expert in Chinese politics at Aichi University said there would be no let-up from Beijing.

“China will keep sending official ships and probably aeroplanes to undermine the status quo of Japan’s control over the islands,” he told AFP.

He said it would be more alarming if it began to send military vessels or aircraft, but he believed Beijing had no interest in a war with Tokyo.

“China hopes to draw Japan to the negotiating table,” he said, adding that the likely victory of the hawkish Shinzo Abe in Japan’s general election on Sunday might make any Japanese compromise more difficult.

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