China, Russia Bombers Fly Together off Japan’s Shikoku for 1st Time

Tokyo, Dec. 10 (Jiji Press)–Chinese and Russian bombers have conducted their first joint flight off the Shikoku region in western Japan, according to the Defense Ministry’s Joint Staff Office. “It should be taken as a coercive action against Japan,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a press conference Wednesday. Through diplomatic channels, the Japanese government has expressed its “grave national security concern” to Beijing and Moscow, he noted. The office said Tuesday that two Russian Tu-95 bombers coming from the Sea of Japan and two Chinese H-6 bombers met over the East China Sea and flew long distance together passing between the main and Miyakojima islands of the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa. The planes reversed their course over the Pacific Ocean off Shikoku to return to the East China Sea. During the flight, they were joined by Chinese J-16 fighters. The office also said Russia’s Su-30 fighters and A-50 early warning plane were spotted over the Sea of Japan. In response, ASDF fighters were scrambled. Meanwhile, those Chinese and Russian aircraft did not intrude into Japanese airspace, ministry officials said. Russia conducted for the first time ever a joint military flight with China while a Chinese aircraft carrier is in operation in the Pacific, according to experts. The ministry confirmed as of Tuesday that the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning was navigating some 500 kilometers north of Tokyo’s Okinotorishima Island, after at least a fighter launched from the flattop directed its radar at ASDF fighters on Saturday. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]