Japan in Diaoyu warning aimed at Chinese planes
Source: Agencies/Shanghai Daily |
January 16, 2013, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Japan will send a signal shell as a warning if a Chinese plane enters the airspace around the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, it said yesterday.
If the Chinese plane ignores a warning by radio, Japan will then launch the signal shell as an "appropriate response based on international norms," the Asahi Shimbun reported Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera as telling a news briefing.
Japan sent a signal shell in 1987 when a Soviet Union bomber entered its airspace, according to the newspaper, without identifying the airspace.
Meanwhile, China is to carry
out a geographical survey of the Diaoyu Islands as part of a program to map China's territorial islands and reefs, the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation said yesterday.
The mapping exercise was part of China's efforts to "safeguard its maritime rights and interests," Xinhua news agency said, without saying when it would take place or making clear whether it would involve activities on land, as opposed to sea-based surveying.
It quoted Zhang Huifeng, an administration official, as saying: "There are some difficulties in landing on some islands to survey, and in surveying and mapping the surrounding sea area of the islands, because some countries infringed and occupied these islands of China."
The maritime dispute, which has simmered off and on for years, intensified last year when the Japanese government "bought" the islands from a so-called private owner, triggering anger and demonstrations in China.
Both Tokyo and Beijing have scrambled fighter jets to the area in recent weeks in a further escalation of the row.
China's armed forces have been instructed to raise their fighting ability in 2013 and "should focus closely on the objective of being able to fight and win a battle," according to the a directive from the Headquarters of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
On Monday, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that Japan would deploy two more patrol ships to boost its "defense" of the Diaoyu Islands. And Japan conducted its first drill simulating the recapture of an island seized by enemy forces.
If the Chinese plane ignores a warning by radio, Japan will then launch the signal shell as an "appropriate response based on international norms," the Asahi Shimbun reported Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera as telling a news briefing.
Japan sent a signal shell in 1987 when a Soviet Union bomber entered its airspace, according to the newspaper, without identifying the airspace.
Meanwhile, China is to carry
out a geographical survey of the Diaoyu Islands as part of a program to map China's territorial islands and reefs, the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation said yesterday.
The mapping exercise was part of China's efforts to "safeguard its maritime rights and interests," Xinhua news agency said, without saying when it would take place or making clear whether it would involve activities on land, as opposed to sea-based surveying.
It quoted Zhang Huifeng, an administration official, as saying: "There are some difficulties in landing on some islands to survey, and in surveying and mapping the surrounding sea area of the islands, because some countries infringed and occupied these islands of China."
The maritime dispute, which has simmered off and on for years, intensified last year when the Japanese government "bought" the islands from a so-called private owner, triggering anger and demonstrations in China.
Both Tokyo and Beijing have scrambled fighter jets to the area in recent weeks in a further escalation of the row.
China's armed forces have been instructed to raise their fighting ability in 2013 and "should focus closely on the objective of being able to fight and win a battle," according to the a directive from the Headquarters of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
On Monday, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that Japan would deploy two more patrol ships to boost its "defense" of the Diaoyu Islands. And Japan conducted its first drill simulating the recapture of an island seized by enemy forces.
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