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Reuters

China’s air force chief has defended military manoeuvres in the Sea of Japan, saying the waters do not belong to Tokyo, after a Japanese defence review warned of increasing Chinese military activity there.
Japan worries that China’s testing of its air defences is part of a push to extend its military influence in the East China Sea and western Pacific, where Japan controls an island chain stretching 1,400 kilometres south towards Taiwan.

In an annual defence white paper released on Tuesday, Japan said the number of its jet scrambles against Chinese aircraft hit a record in the year to March 2017.
China rebukes Japan for criticising actions in South China Sea
It warned that Chinese naval and air force activities in the Sea of Japan could pick up pace.
“The Sea of Japan is not Japan’s sea,” People’s Liberation Army Air Force Commander Ma Xiaotian said on Thursday, in response to a question at a military event in the northeastern city of Changchun.
“We must carry out drills at sea. China’s air force cannot simply guard on land and not go out,” Ma said in a report broadcast by Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television, which was posted to the air force’s official microblog late the same day.

“But [activities] in the Sea of Japan are still not that many. What they have said is a bit of an exaggeration.”
US destroyer challenges Beijing’s claims in South China Sea
Tokyo’s ties with Beijing have long been plagued by a territorial disputes over a group of tiny, uninhabited East China Sea islets and the legacy of Japan’s wartime aggression.
The Sea of Japan separates Japan from the Korean peninsula. China said in July that its navy had the right to pass though a strait linking it with the Pacific Ocean, after one of its warships entered the area.
Increasing activity by China’s rapidly modernising military has raised tension in East Asia since the start of the year, as North Korea persists with ballistic missile and nuclear bomb tests that have stoked fears in Japan, the United States and elsewhere.


Chinese air force chief defends Sea of Japan exercises because waters ‘do not belong to Tokyo’

Japan is worried there will be an increase in Chinese naval activity. Photo: AP Photo/Xinhua

(FILES) This file photo taken on an undisclosed date in December 2016 shows a Chinese J-15 fighter jet landing on the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills in the Bohai Sea, off China's northeast coast. China's navy plans a training exercise in the Pacific that would include for the first time its sole aircraft carrier, state media reported on December 24, 2016 -- a move likely to ratchet up regional tensions. The duration of the drill and the route of the flotilla were not known. But the Soviet-made carrier is based in the northeastern city of Dalian, suggesting the fleet would enter the Pacific through a disputed island chain between Taiwan and Japan. / AFP PHOTO / STR / - China OUT

Ma Xiaotian, general and the Commander-in-Chief of the People's Liberation Army Air Force, salutes at "Airshow China 2014" at Zhuhai. 11NOV14

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Senior commander defends operations after Japanese defence review warned of increasing activity by Chinese armed forces


Chinese air force chief defends Sea of Japan exercises because waters ‘do not belong to Tokyo’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Senior commander defends operations after Japanese defence review warned of increasing activity by Chinese armed forces

Senior commander defends operations after Japanese defence review warned of increasing activity by Chinese armed forces