A Chinese Y-9 spy plane breached Japan's airspace on Monday, the first such incursion of its kind. The incident comes amid heightened regional tensions, and has raised questions over whether China is increasing its military operations.
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00:00China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responding to claims from Japan that it breached its
00:05airspace on Monday.
00:06Here's what they had to say.
00:07关于你提到的事件,中方的有关部门正在了解核实相关的情况。
00:14This incident comes after Japan reported that a Chinese Y-9 reconnaissance plane breached
00:20its airspace near the Danzhou Islands, that's near southwestern Japan.
00:24This would be the first confirmed instance of China violating Japan's territorial airspace.
00:29Tokyo says that it responded with scrambling fighter jets and is summoning officials from
00:33the Chinese embassy to explain what happened.
00:36These Y-9 planes usually operate around Japan in Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone
00:42or ADIZs.
00:43Just to be clear, these are military buffer zones, different to a country's airspace.
00:48So this means that China breaching Japan's sovereign airspace is a big deal.
00:52Here in Taiwan two years ago, there were concerns over what would happen if a Chinese plane
00:57passed Taiwan's ADIZ and breached Taiwan's airspace.
01:01The defense minister at the time said it would be considered a first strike and Taiwan could
01:05shoot it down.
01:06This incident is raising questions whether China is increasing its presence in this region.
01:11Now it's up to Japan to figure out how to boost its defense and prevent an instance
01:15like this from happening again.
01:17Joseph Wu and Jaime Okan in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.