{"id":308265,"date":"2025-11-25T18:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308265\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T18:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:45:08","slug":"japan-scrambles-jets-after-suspected-chinese-drone-spotted-near-yonaguni-island-near-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308265\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan scrambles jets after suspected Chinese drone spotted near Yonaguni island near Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan’s defence ministry says it scrambled aircraft after detecting a suspected Chinese drone off an island near Taiwan, amid a weeks-long diplomatic spat between Tokyo and Beijing.<\/p>\n

The drone was spotted off Japan’s Yonaguni, an island where Tokyo is planning to deploy missiles in a move that has angered Beijing.<\/p>\n

“We confirmed that an unmanned aerial vehicle believed to be Chinese passed between Yonaguni Island and Taiwan on Monday,” Japan’s defence ministry said on X.<\/p>\n

The regional Japan Air Self-Defense Forces “scrambled aircraft” in response, it said.<\/p>\n

Beijing-Tokyo relations have soured this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.<\/p>\n

China says Japan ‘crossed a red line’ over Taiwan comments<\/a><\/p>\n

China’s foreign minister has accused Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of attempting to intervene militarily over Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The row escalated again on Monday when China slammed Japan’s decision to push ahead with the planned deployment of missiles on Yonaguni following a visit to the island by Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.<\/p>\n

China’s foreign ministry said the plan was a “deliberate attempt to create regional tension and provoke military confrontation”.<\/p>\n

Mr Koizumi pushed back on Tuesday, saying “the medium-range surface-to-air guided missiles planned for deployment are defensive equipment intended to counter aircraft and missiles invading our nation”.<\/p>\n

“They are not intended to attack other countries, are deployed throughout Japan, and clearly do not heighten regional tensions,” he said.<\/p>\n

Since 2016, the island of Yonaguni has hosted a base for Japan’s army, the Self-Defense Forces, which was established despite initial objections from residents.<\/p>\n

Tokyo had previously announced plans to deploy the Type 03 Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Guided Missile to defend the island against incoming air-to-ground missiles and aircraft.<\/p>\n

China’s confrontation with Japan undermines its own interests<\/a><\/p>\n

China and Japan have a long record of brief diplomatic thaws followed by sudden deterioration.<\/p>\n

Trump and Takaichi speak<\/p>\n

China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring the self-ruled island under its control.<\/p>\n

Taiwan on Monday said that Japan’s strengthening of military facilities on Yonaguni “helps maintain security in the Taiwan Strait”.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump spoke with China’s President Xi Jinping on Monday, prompting some analysts to question whether Beijing was pushing the US to pressure Japan on the issue of Taiwan.<\/p>\n

Ms Takaichi said she spoke to Mr Trump immediately after Monday’s call.<\/p>\n

“President Trump told me that he and I are extremely good friends and that I should call him any time,” she said in brief remarks made to reporters at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

She did not say whether they discussed her Taiwan comment.<\/p>\n

“We confirmed the close coordination between Japan and the United States,” she said.<\/p>\n

She declined to give any other details of the discussion, citing diplomatic protocol.<\/p>\n

AFP\/AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan’s defence ministry says it scrambled aircraft after detecting a suspected Chinese drone off an island near Taiwan,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3686,512,175213,175215,3978,43,941,81941,44,130747,175216,11069,11804,41,39,42,40,9731,175214],"class_list":["post-308265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-china-japan-news","tag-chinese-drone","tag-drones","tag-headlines","tag-japan","tag-missiles","tag-news","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-shinjiro-koizumi","tag-taiwan","tag-tokyo","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-xi-jinping","tag-yonaguni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}