China, Russia joint air patrols veer close to South Korean airspace, Seoul says

Joint operation on Tuesday prompted South Korea to scramble fighter jets
Incident came days after US military accused a Chinese warship of ‘unsafe and unprofessional’ manoeuvre in the Taiwan Strait

China’s military

Kawala Xie

Published: 9:17pm, 6 Jun 2023

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China and Russia conducted joint air force patrols over the East China Sea and Sea of Japan prompting South Korea to scramble aircraft, just days after a close encounter involving Chinese and US warships in the Taiwan Strait.

The joint operation on Tuesday was the sixth under the annual cooperation plan between the two militaries since 2019, Beijing’s defence ministry announced.

South Korea scrambled fighter jets after four Chinese and four Russian military aircraft entered Seoul’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) without notice, according to Yonhap, citing South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

An ADIZ is an area wider than a country’s airspace in which it tries to control aircraft for security reasons, but the concept is not defined in any international treaty.

Seoul said the Chinese and Russian aircraft entered the southern and eastern parts of its ADIZ for about two hours shortly before noon and then left, without violating South Korea’s airspace.

Officials did not reveal the types of Chinese and Russian aircraft involved.

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During China and Russia’s last joint patrol in November, both the South Korean and Japanese military scrambled jets to keep watch. Two Chinese H-6 bombers and six Russian aircraft, including both the TU-95 bombers and SU-35 fighter jets entered South Korea’s ADIZ then.

Beijing and Moscow also conducted a joint patrol during the Quad summit in May last year when Japan hosted the United States, Australia and India in Tokyo, prompting a similar emergency response from Tokyo when Chinese and Russian warplanes flew near its airspace.

The patrol this year came days after the US and its Asia-Pacific allies took aim at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s growing assertiveness in the region during the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore held last weekend.

The defence conference coincided with a close encounter between US and Chinese warships in the Taiwan Strait on Saturday. The US accused the Chinese warship of making an “unsafe and unprofessional” manoeuvre by crossing in front of the American destroyer.

China again defended its actions on Tuesday, calling the American “surveillance” operation near its territory “provocative” and “hegemonic”.

Asia-Pacific countries have been moving to ramp up deterrence amid geopolitical tensions while the US and its allies, such as Japan and the Philippines, come together to counter China’s military activities.

A Chinese Type 052D guided-missile destroyer and a Type 054A frigate were spotted near Okinawa, Japan on Tuesday. The US, Japan and the Philippines are also holding their first trilateral naval exercises between their coastguards in the South China Sea.

On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry lashed out at Nato for interfering in Asia-Pacific affairs and “provoking bloc confrontation” by planning a liaison office in Japan.

“Nato should keep a clear head on this issue, and Japan should also make a correct judgment that is in line with the interests of regional stability and development, and refrain from doing things that undermine mutual trust among regional countries and damage regional peace and stability,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.