TOKYO — In a display of growing territorial tensions between China and Japan, the Japanese Defense Ministry said Sunday that Chinese jet fighters had flown dangerously close to two of its reconnaissance planes in overlapping air-defense zones claimed by both nations.
The ministry described two separate incidents that took place Saturday in airspace over the East China Sea that both countries claim as so-called air-defense identification zones, areas bordering their sovereign airspace in which they require foreign aircraft to identify themselves and provide flight plans. The Chinese stance toward at least Japanese military flights appeared to change Saturday, when a pair of Chinese Su-27 fighters flew within 100 feet of a Japanese YS-11 propeller-driven reconnaissance plane. Earlier in the day, another pair of Chinese fighters flew within 150 feet of a Japanese P-3C, another propeller-driven plane, the ministry said.
It said the Chinese fighters took no other measures against the Japanese planes, which both returned to base safely.