Posted on 11/09/2005 5:23:57 AM PST by Esther Ruth
Japan Scrambles Fighters 30 Times to Repel Chinese
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
TOKYO Japanese fighter jets have been scrambled 30 times to turn away Chinese planes approaching Japan's airspace in the last six months, more than twice the 13 times in the same period last year, officials said Wednesday.
The increased defensive posture reflects the growing tensions between Japan and China, which are squabbling over interpretations of their wartime past, undersea gas deposits, and ownership of East China Sea islands.
An Air Self Defense Force spokesman said Japan's fighter jets had scrambled 30 times in response to what were believed to be Chinese military planes in the six months from April to September. Japan's fiscal year starts in April.
The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with agency policy, added that fighter jets also have been deployed since October, but declined to say how many times.
That would surpass the record-high 30 scramblings in response to Chinese planes in all of 1998. Japan began keeping track of the number of fighter jet mobilizations against specified countries in 1995.
Another official of the Air Self Defense Force declined to comment on the types of Chinese planes or what they were doing. He said there have been no major confrontations between Japanese fighter jets and foreign military planes in 2005.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The Chinese remind me of the Japanese in the late 30's.
How can China be out of room? Isn't it huge, er, hugh?
I think the Japanese could kick China's a$$ if they wanted to. They are technically pacifist, but could become a nuclear power with the flip of a switch. Of course, if it goes nuclear all bets are off, but neither side is that foolish.
It is big, but the entire western part is mostly desert. And besided with 1,300,000,000 people, you need alot of room.
Over-populated, out of room and out of resources
Sounds like Japan now. Why attempt to invade them?
Why attempt to invade them? --- "undersea gas deposits, and ownership of East China Sea islands."
???
After Gojira (Godzilla), Mothra, Ghidra, Rhodan and all the rest, the PLA-AF should be a piece of cake!!!!
Living here the past 25 years and a retiree, I'd say Japan's defense is as big as the USA's military umbrella.
I think you're right. But if China is going to attack anywhere, it's going to be north, not east and south like the Japanese did in 1941. And to top it off, Russia is selling the Chicoms the very same high-tech weapons that the PLA will then use to attack Russia. Shades of the Hitler/Stalin non-agression pact in 1939. Those who forget history yada yada yada.
China will have to protect it's flank by establishing a security sphere across the Pacific the same way Japan did in WW2. There's only one stradegy that plays in the Pacific; island warfare. They'll probably take Hawaii, Australia and the Eastern Pacific too before they're stopped.
I agree. A northern front is an option for them. Siberia is a mineral warehouse and provides for a western push into Russia and an eastern push into Alaska.
hi esther ruth, not only for the above mentioned reasons would china love to own japan, but in chinas view, ww2 was a humiliation of all humiliations. payback is desireable in chinas eyes. but the biggest prize of all would be the technology transfer, wow, nothing on this scale has ever happened before. one day you are a rodent climbing around a cesspool trying to look up and the next day you are equal to the usa in technology, a very worthwhile gamble in my book.
ping
Siberia is the logical choice because of the natural resources lying under the tundra, and there just aren't that many people there now. I don't think they'll make any pushes into Alaska as they have practically no amphibious capability(they still lack the means to invade Taiwan).
Japan will soon revise their stand on nuclear weapons.
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