China Releases Audio Data over Radar Incident

Beijing, Dec. 9 (Jiji Press)--A Chinese media outlet on Tuesday released what it claims is audio data showing the country's navy notifying Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force in advance of training of aircraft deployed on the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning.

The prior notice was given by a navy ship in Chinese and English, and an MSDF vessel responded in English that it received the message, according to Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account affiliated with state-run China Central Television. The communication was apparently made by radio.

The disclosure of the audio data came at a time when tensions between Japan and China grew further following the Japanese Defense Ministry's announcement Sunday that a Chinese warplane intermittently used its radar on fighter jets of the Japanese Air SDF twice over the high seas of the western Pacific southeast of the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa on Saturday afternoon.

Yuyuan Tantian reported that the advance notice of the Liaoning-based aircraft's training was given twice Saturday afternoon.

Nevertheless, the Japanese side entered the training area, with an ASDF plane coming within 50 kilometers, it said. The Chinese military naturally detected the radar from the ASDF aircraft as it entered the Chinese side's radar search range, it added.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]