China sharpens confrontation with Japan following reported radar run-in

Beijing escalated its warfare of words with Tokyo aft Japan said Chinese combatant jets aimed a fire-control radar astatine Japanese F-15s flying adjacent Okinawa, an enactment Tokyo called "dangerous" and "extremely regrettable."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his German counterpart Johann Wadephul successful Beijing that "Japan is threatening China militarily," a stance helium called "completely unacceptable," aft the radar incident, Reuters reported.

Wang accused Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of "trying to exploit the Taiwan question — the precise territory Japan colonized for fractional a century, committing countless crimes against the Chinese radical — to provoke occupation and endanger China militarily. This is wholly unacceptable," Wang said, according to China’s authoritative Xinhua News Agency. He added that Japan, arsenic a World War II "defeated nation," should enactment with greater caution.

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German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi be a property league successful Berlin, Germany July 3, 2025. Nadja Wohlleben/Reuters (Nadja Wohlleben/Reuters)

China adept Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital, "China, with Saturday’s radar-lock incidents against Japan and different belligerent acts recently, looks similar it wants to commencement a war. In immoderate event, these incidents could easy spiral into war, particularly due to the fact that China cannot enactment constructively oregon deescalate."

Japanese officials accidental the confrontation unfolded Dec. 6, erstwhile Chinese J-15 combatant jets operating from the craft bearer Liaoning doubly aimed radar astatine Japanese F-15s implicit planetary waters adjacent Japan’s Okinawa islands.

"These radar illuminations are a unsafe enactment that goes beyond what is indispensable for the harmless formation of aircraft," Takaichi told reporters, adding that Japan had lodged a protestation with China and calling the incidental "extremely regrettable," Reuters reported.

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Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, whose warnings astir a Taiwan situation person angered Beijing, successful Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

Japan’s authorities aboriginal said the Self-Defense Force fighters "were maintaining a harmless region during their mission" and denied China’s accusation that its jets obstructed Chinese operations, according to comments by Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara according to the Associated Press.

The radar clash came connected the heels of remarks by Takaichi that person already enactment relations successful connected edge. In aboriginal November, she told parliament that a Chinese onslaught connected Taiwan could magnitude to a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan and perchance trigger a subject effect nether Japan’s 2015 information laws, Reuters reported. Beijing condemned those comments arsenic "egregious," accused Tokyo of terrible interference successful its interior affairs and warned of "serious consequences" if they were not retracted.

A J-20 stealth combatant pitchy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force performs astatine the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, oregon Airshow China, successful Zhuhai, Guangdong province, China Nov. 9, 2022. (China Daily via Reuters )

Chinese officials and authorities media person since portrayed Takaichi arsenic hyping up an outer menace to warrant Japan’s subject buildup and person alignment with Taiwan. In parallel, Chinese spokespeople person accused Japan of "hyping up" the radar incidental itself and "deliberately making a mendacious accusation" to physique tension, according to authoritative statements carried by People’s Daily and different Chinese outlets.

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J-20 combatant jets alert successful the entity during formation show astatine the aviation open-day activities of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and the Changchun Air Show 2025 connected Sep, 19, 2025 successful Changchun, Jilin Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images) (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Chang said "China has not been capable to get Prime Minister Takaichi to backmost down, truthful its choices are to judge its humiliation oregon ramp up the crisis. It volition ramp up. China is present proving Takaichi right: Beijing is creating a ‘survival-threatening situation’ for Japan."