China told Japan on Friday to „get used to it“ after it flew six warplanes over the Miyako Strait between two southern Japanese islands in a military exercise, while at the same time sending a spy ship off Alaska to observe the latest successful THAAD intercept of a ballistic missile.
In an unexpectedly brazen rattling of sabers, just days after China deployed troops to its first foreign base in Djibouti, a move which the Global Times clarified is „about protecting its own security, not about seeking to control the world, Beijing made a less than subtle reversal, when it told Japan on Friday to “ get used to it“ after it flew six warplanes over the Miyako Strait between two southern Japanese islands in a military exercise.
It all started late on Thursday night, when Japan’s defense ministry issued a token statement describing the flyover by the formation of Xian H-6 bombers, also known as China’s B-52, earlier that day as „unusual“, while noting that there had been no violation of Japanese airspace.
The flyover was hardly surprising: the Chinese navy and air force have been carrying out a series of exercises in the Western Pacific in recent month, both as they hone their ability to operate far from their home shores, as well as a trial balloon to gauge the reactions of their increasingly more nervous neighbors.
What made this flyover different, is that usually following a formal protest by the „offended“ country, Beijing would take note and issue a token statement of its own, „neither admitting nor denying“ guilt, but certainly without assurances of further transgressions. But not this time. On Friday the Chinese defense ministry said it was „legal and proper“ for its military aircraft to operate in the airspace and that it would continue to organize regular training exercises according to „mission requirements.“
In other words, Beijing pushed back against Japan’s complaint suggesting that China had not only done nothing wrong, but that this behaviour would escalate:
„The relevant side should not make a fuss about nothing or over-interpret, it will be fine once they get used to it, “ the ministry said in a statement.
