US nuclear-capable bombers flew over the Sea of Japan alongside Japanese fighter jets on Wednesday, Tokyo said, in a show of force following Chinese and Russian drills in the skies and seas around US allies Japan and South Korea.
Japan and the US "reaffirmed their strong resolve to prevent any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force and confirmed the readiness posture of both the Self-Defense Forces and US forces," Japan's defense ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The flight of two US B-52 strategic bombers with three Japanese F-35 stealth fighters and three F-15 air-superiority jets was the first time the US had asserted its military presence since China began military exercises in the region last week amid heightened tensions between Tokyo and Beijing, Reuters reported.
However, a US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, played down the bomber flights, saying they were pre-planned well before the Chinese-Russian drills and that US and Japanese military aircraft carried out similar joint sorties last month, also involving US B-1B bombers. At the White House, spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said US President Donald Trump can maintain both a "good working relationship" with China and a "very strong alliance" with Japan, even as tensions have risen between those two countries.
"Japan is a great ally of the United States as evidenced by their personal relationship and our continued trade relations with Japan," she told a press briefing.
"With respect to China, the president also has a good working relationship with President Xi, which he believes is a good thing for our country." The US bomber flights follow a joint flight of Chinese and Russian strategic bombers in the East China Sea and western Pacific on Tuesday and separate Chinese aircraft carrier drills that prompted Japan to scramble jets that Tokyo said were targeted by radar beams. That latter incident prompted US State Department criticism of Beijing, although Trump, who plans to visit the Chinese capital next year for trade talks, told Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month he did not want to see further escalation of the dispute over Taiwan, according to two Japanese government sources.
Tensions flared last month when Takichi said in parliament that a Chinese attack on democratically governed Taiwan, which is claimed by Beijing, could trigger a military response from Tokyo. Taiwan sits just over 100 km (62 miles) from Japanese territory and is surrounded by sea lanes on which Tokyo relies.
China denied Tokyo’s accusation about the carrier aircraft encounter, saying Japanese jets had endangered its air operations south of Japan. On Tuesday, the State Department said China's actions were "not conducive to regional peace and stability" and reaffirmed the US alliance with Japan as "unwavering."
SHOW OF FORCE
Both Japan and South Korea host US forces, with Japan home to the biggest concentration of American military power overseas, including an aircraft carrier strike group and a US Marine expeditionary force.
Japan's Chief of Staff, Joint Staff General Hiroaki Uchikura, said the Chinese and Russian joint bomber flight was clearly a show of force directed at Japan.
"We consider it a grave concern from the standpoint of Japan's security," Uchikura told a press briefing.
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi also shared Japan's concerns with NATO chief Mark Rutte in a telephone call on Wednesday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the drills with Russia were part of an annual cooperation plan to show determination to "safeguard regional peace and stability".
"The Japanese side has no need to make a fuss about nothing or to take this personally," he said.
ACTIVITY NEAR SOUTH KOREA, TAIWAN
South Korea’s military said it also scrambled fighter jets when the Chinese and Russian aircraft entered its air defense identification zone on Tuesday, an area that extends beyond its airspace and is used for early warning.
Chinese military ships and aircraft operate almost daily around Taiwan, in what Taipei says is part of Beijing's ongoing pressure campaign. On Thursday, Taiwan's defense ministry reported a stepped-up Chinese military presence for a second day in a row. It said it had detected 27 aircraft, including nuclear-capable H-6K bombers, conducting a "joint combat readiness patrol", along with warships around the island.
