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Japan accuses China of conducting dangerous flights

366533_Itsunori-Odonera

Tokyo has lodged a diplomatic complaint with China, accusing Beijing of flying its fighter jets “dangerously” close to Japanese military planes.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said his ministry has filed the complaint, on Wednesday.

Onodera warned that the move by China “could have led to an accident,” adding, “We cannot allow this to happen.”

According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, two Chinese SU-27 jets flew as close as 30 meters (100 feet) away from the Japanese aircraft at about 11 am local time.

The area where the Chinese jets allegedly neared the Japanese aircraft is about 200-300 kilometers (125-190 miles) north of disputed Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, known as the Diaoyus in Chinese and the Senkakus in Japanese.

The Japanese Defense Ministry said this was the second of such incidents in less than three weeks.

The development comes after Tokyo said on June 6 that two Chinese ships had sailed into the waters in the East China Sea disputed by the two sides for the 13th times this year.

Chinese vessels and aircraft have regularly approached the East China Sea archipelago, believed to be rich in natural resources, after Japan nationalized some of the islands in September 2012, setting off the latest round in a long-running territorial dispute.

Fears of an ensuing conflict grew in November 2013, when China declared an air defense zone with military over-flights over a stretch of East China Sea covering the islands.

The dispute has negatively affected bilateral trade and diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Beijing.

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