Tag Archives: fighter planes

U.S. sends delegation to Taiwan, China responds with military drill

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • China holds military drills around Taiwan as U.S. delegation visits
  • China’s military sent frigates, bombers and fighter planes to the East China Sea and the area around Taiwan on Friday, People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command spokesman Shi Yilu said, according to China’s state broadcaster.
  • The People’s Liberation Army said the move was intended to target the “wrong signals” sent by the United States.
  • “With Taiwan producing 90% of the world’s high-end semiconductor products, it is a country of global significance, consequence and impact, and therefore it should be understood the security of Taiwan has a global impact,” Menendez told Tsai in a meeting in the presidential office broadcast live online.

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Russia approves warplane deployment on disputed island near Japan

Japan Coast Guard vessel PS08 Kariba sails off Cape Nosappu, easternmost point in Japan, in Nemuro on Hokkaido island, as part of a group of islands known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kuriles in Russia can be seen in the background April 14, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato

By Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved the deployment of Russian warplanes on a disputed island near Japan, accelerating the area’s militarization at a time when Moscow’s ties with Tokyo are strained over the roll-out of a U.S. missile system.

In a decree published late on Thursday, Medvedev allowed the Russian Defence Ministry to use a civilian airport on the island of Iturup, as it is known by Russia, or Etorofu, as it is called in Japan, for its warplanes.

The island was one of four seized by Soviet forces at the end of World War Two and is located off the north-east coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s biggest prefecture. The dispute over the islands, known as the Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, is so acrimonious that Moscow and Tokyo have not yet signed a peace treaty to mark the end of the war.

Medvedev’s decree is the latest step in a Russian military build-up that has seen Moscow deploy some of its newest missile defense systems to the islands and plan to build a naval base there even as it continues talks about the territorial dispute.

The decree was published days before deputy foreign ministers from the two countries are due to hold talks about co-operation on the disputed islands and at a time when Russia is concerned that Japan is allowing Washington to use its territory as a base for a U.S. military build-up in north Asia under the pretext of countering North Korea.

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It is unclear whether Russia will permanently deploy warplanes to the island, which hosted a Soviet air base during the Cold War, or use its airport as and when needed.

The newspaper Kommersant cited an unnamed military source as saying the move would give the Russian military more options.

“This move should show the aerodrome’s readiness for fighter planes that patrol our borders to be temporarily based there,” the source was quoted as saying.

The same source was quoted as saying that Russia was particularly concerned about a Japanese plan to deploy more Aegis U.S. missile systems in its Akita and Yagamata prefectures.

The Japanese embassy in Moscow said the Russian move ran counter to what Tokyo was trying to achieve.

“We believe this could result in Russia’s military power being strengthened on the four islands and that contradicts Japan’s position on the islands,” it said in a statement.

“We need a solution to the territorial problem itself in order to fundamentally address these kind of problems.”

Tokyo would keep holding talks with Russia to try to resolve the wider territorial dispute, the embassy said.

(Editing by Gareth Jones and Robin Pomeroy)

China criticized Japan over dangerous jet scramble

A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island , Minamikojima and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China is seen in

BEIJING (Reuters) – China strongly criticized Japan over a scramble of military aircraft from the two countries on Monday amid a dispute over islands in the East China Sea.

Two Japanese fighter jets took “provocative actions” at a high speed near a pair of Chinese fighter jets that were carrying out patrols in the East China Sea on June 17, China’s defense ministry said in a micro blog statement on Monday, without specifying where exactly the incident took place.

The Japanese planes used fire-control radar to “light up” the Chinese aircraft, the statement added.

Japan’s senior military officer has acknowledged there was a scramble but has denied that any radar lock by the Chinese jet occurred or that the incident turned dangerous.

“The Japanese plane’s provocative actions caused an accident in the air, endangering the safety of personnel on both sides, and destroying the peace and stability in the region,” China’s Defense Ministry said, adding the Chinese aircraft “responded resolutely”.

China called on Japan to cease all provocative action, the statement added.

The statement about the incident comes after Japan’s top military commander accused China of escalating military activity in the East China Sea, saying Japanese emergency scrambles to counter Chinese jets almost doubled over the past three months.

Japan is embroiled in a dispute with China in the East China Sea over ownership of a group of islands which lie about 220 km (140 miles) northeast of Taiwan, known as the Senkakus in Tokyo and the Diaoyu islands in Beijing.

Japan is worried that China is escalating its activity in the East China Sea in response to Tokyo’s pledge to support countries in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Vietnam, that oppose China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.

(Reporting By Megha Rajagopalan, additional reporting by Tim Kelly in TOKYO; Editing by Nick Macfie)