Japan protests China over jet interference claim

TOKYO (AA) - Tokyo has lodged a protest with Beijing over a claim that Japanese fighter jets interfered at close range with Chinese military planes that passed over a strait in southern Okinawa prefecture over the weekend.

Japan’s top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga refuted the claim Monday, telling a press conference that Air Self-Defense Force fighters scrambled Saturday for "appropriate surveillance" of six Chinese aircraft over the Miyako Strait.

After the incident, China's defense ministry said two Japanese F-15 fighter jets interfered with the Chinese aircraft from “close range” and allegedly fired “jamming shells".

Suga disputed the claims Monday, insisting that the Japanese aircraft did not endanger the Chinese jets’ safety.

"The Chinese Defense Ministry's announcement of something so obviously contrary to the facts is extremely regrettable and impairs the improvement of Japan-China relations, so we have lodged a stern protest with China," he was quoted as saying.

He underlined that Japan would remain vigilant and continue surveillance activities “to protect its territory”, as well as closely monitoring the Chinese military’s “expanding and intensifying" activity.

In September, Japan had scrambled fighter jets after eight Chinese aircraft -- reportedly including two fighters -- flew in international airspace over the Miyako Strait on their way to a drill in the West Pacific.

According to Japan’s defense ministry, the flights marked the first by Chinese fighter jets over the strait, which Chinese military spy planes have passed over in the past.

In the past year a long-running dispute between Japan and China over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea has raised the risk of an unintended military clash Asia’s two largest economies.