The Japanese Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday evening (June 11) that over the past weekend, two aircraft carriers from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were operating in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Chinese military aircraft also approached abnormally close to a Japanese military patrol aircraft monitoring the CCP aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean.
According to the Ministry of Defense, a J-15 fighter jet from the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong followed a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force P-3C patrol aircraft for about 40 minutes on Saturday and 80 minutes on Sunday. It is believed that the fighter jet was carrying missiles and flew at a distance of less than 45 meters at the same altitude as the patrol aircraft, posing a potential collision risk.
On Sunday, two CCP fighter jets followed the P-3C patrol aircraft, with one flying at the same altitude about 900 meters in front of the Maritime Self-Defense Force aircraft. The P-3C is capable of covering this distance in a matter of seconds at cruising speed. No injuries were reported among the self-defense force personnel.
The two P-3C aircraft belong to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force stationed in Okinawa, conducting surveillance on the CCP aircraft carriers in international waters of the Pacific at that time.
“We express serious concerns over the CCP military aircraft approaching abnormally close, as it could lead to accidental collisions, and strongly demand measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” stated the Japanese Ministry of Defense.
The Defense Ministry believes that these actions were intentional. “These actions are not the kind that Japanese self-defense force pilots would take,” an official from the Defense Ministry told Nikkei.
The disclosure of the incident was delayed by several days by the Defense Ministry to allow time for questioning the crew of the P-3C patrol aircraft and analyzing data to confirm the actual situation. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Defense Minister Motonobu Taniguchi were quickly informed of the incident.
This marks the third time since 2014 that Chinese aircraft have engaged in abnormal proximity maneuvers towards self-defense force aircraft, all incidents occurring in the airspace above the East China Sea.
The “Shandong” aircraft carrier was sailing in the sea approximately 550 kilometers southeast of Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture last Saturday. On the same day, the “Liaoning” aircraft carrier was also navigating in the Pacific Ocean, the first time the Japanese Ministry of Defense had confirmed the simultaneous presence of two CCP aircraft carriers in the Pacific.