Close encounters: Chinese JH-7 jet buzzes Japan’s YS-11EB in East China's flyby, outrages Tokyo

A close encounter over the East China Sea unfolded on Wednesday and Thursday as a Chinese JH-7 fighter-bomber flew as close as 30 meters of a Japanese YS-11EB in a manoeuvre that sparked outrage in Tokyo. This close encounter in the international airspace reveals the tension between Japan and China as they look for regional dominance.

Japan's Defence Minister called the move reckless, even though no damage or injury was reported. The incidents are part of the growing aggressive assertion of China. It claimed that these incidents occurred on subsequent dates on Wednesday and Thursday for 10 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively. Each time coming as close as 30 meters both horizontally and vertically. This type of movement is known as ‘buzzing’ and is used for the intimidation and disruption of surveillance missions.

The Defence Minister of Japan said that this was outside the airspace of Japan. Previously, in May and June, both Japan and China had accused each other of violating the airspace around the Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands.

The Chinese JH-7 is a twin-engine fighter aircraft developed by Xi’an Aircraft Industrial Corporation, which has a combat radius of about 900 miles. It is an old model but carries a potential maritime advantage with anti-ship missiles like the YJ-83, which has a range of 110 miles and a 360-pound warhead. With a speed of 1.75 Mach, this has the potential to carry up to 20,000 pounds of ordnance.

The Japanese YS-11EB is an electronic intelligence platform operated by the Japan Air Self-Defence Force. With a speed of 290 miles per hour, this twin turboprop aircraft is vulnerable to the close approaches of interceptors like the JH-7. Its primary role is signal intelligence; its side-looking radar and electronic countermeasures feed important data about the Chinese naval movements, such as the Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers, which recently carried out exercises in the volatile Pacific.

China routinely sends out its coast guard vessels and aircraft into waters and airspace surrounding the islands, which it calls Diaoyu, to harass Japanese vessels in the area and scramble Japanese jets. Tokoyo has previously protested to the Chinese Embassy in Tokoyo. China previously has accused Japan of flying close to its aircraft and spying on China's ordinary military activity, and demanded that Japan stop its actions. However, this time, China did not comment on the accusations. These actions by both sides test each other's response time in a hotly contested Sino-Japanese focal point of the East China Sea.