The Chinese PLA Navy's Liaoning aircraft carrier formation recently organized regular flight training for its carrier-based fighter jets in waters east of the Miyako Strait. The Chinese side not only announced the training zones in advance, fully demonstrating its sincerity in transparency and openness, but also strictly adhered to international legal norms such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, ensuring that the whole process was lawful and legitimate.
The fighter jets of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), however, turning a blind eye to the repeated warnings from the Chinese side, approached and harassed the training zones over and over again. The moves not only seriously disrupted the normal training of the Chinese side, but also put the lives of the frontline servicemen of both sides in an extremely dangerous situation, which completely exposed its essence of provocation.
What is even more despicable is that after the harassment, the Japanese side, without reflecting on its dangerous moves, repeatedly distorted the truth and maliciously hyped up the rhetoric that "China threatens regional security" for the purpose of whitewashing its graceless provocative actions as "legitimate rights protection". Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi even deliberately exaggerated the situation, claiming that the Chinese aircraft intermittently targeted radar at JASDF's fighter jets over international waters.
Such rhetoric aiming to mislead the public and making unfounded charges is completely untenable!
China has always pursued a national defense policy that is defensive in nature and unswervingly followed the path of peaceful development. The growth of China's military power contributes to the increase in the forces for world peace and is conducive to maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and the world. The far-sea training of the Chinese PLA Navy's aircraft carrier formation is designed to enhance China's ability to safeguard its maritime rights and interests. The whole training process is not targeted at any specific country and poses no threat to regional stability. As for the temporarily designated safety control area, respecting the training boundary, maintaining a safe distance, and avoiding interference are basic norms recognized by the international community. While China has fulfilled its full obligation to inform, the Japanese side, despite being fully aware of China's training arrangements, still brazenly dispatched military aircraft to approach and disrupt the training. This kind of intentional provocation is the real cause of the risks to maritime and air security.
According to Zhang Junshe, a military expert, it is a standard operation for carrier-based fighter jets to turn on their radars during the training of the Liaoning aircraft carrier formation. The Japanese military aircraft intruding into the training zones that China had announced in advance objectively becomes targets of Chinese aircraft’s radar illumination and simulated targeting, which is entirely due to its provocation. The relevant countermeasures taken by the Chinese side fall under justifiable defense. Nevertheless, the Japanese side, never mentioning its provocation, distorted China's rightful operations as "dangerous actions". The trick of "a-thief-crying-stop-thief" deliberately misleads the perceptions of the international community.
Recently, Japan's series of moves, from continuously strengthening military deployment in the southwest direction and expanding the scope of military operations by breaking free from the constraints of its pacifist Constitution, to repeatedly tracking and surveilling China's far-sea activities and frequently creating frictions on maritime issues, are steadily deviating from the path of peaceful development, increasingly exposing its ambition of military expansion.
The historical lessons are still fresh in memory. The evil path of militarism inevitably leads to an irredeemable abyss. It is essential to note that the Chinese PLA is firmly committed to safeguarding China's sovereignty, security, and development interests. Anyone attempting to challenge the bottom line of the Chinese people will be met with firm and resolute countermeasures. The Japanese side should have a clear understanding of this lest it be burned by the very fire it ignites.