China Probes Japan to Check for Weakness in the Senkaku Islands

China has been sending its PLA Air Force into the Senkaku islands to test the Japanese defenses in the stretch of the East China Sea. Now, the Chinese are getting more adventurous as they perceive their forces superior.

For over a year, the Chinese have done these intrusions regularly, but with expanding naval resources and not too many nations want to stand against it. Japan is one of those who have made it clear it will not back down.

It is of particular interest to China, the Senkakus which possesses a store of oil resources located between Japan, China, Taiwan which is also a strategic location as well. These islands are part of a recent study by Mercedes Trent, who is connected to the Federation of American Scientists, reported Forbes.

Most air-defense identification zone (ADIZ) lie in-between international airspace and the airspace controlled by any nation. This border will stretch twelve miles from its coastal points. If any unknown aircraft will intrude in the control zone, the reaction is interceptors are sent to ID the intruder, making sure the intruders do not have any hostile intent, said Trent.

The nature of ADIZs can be confusing when those of contesting countries will overlap in some areas. For example, in the South China Sea, it can be confusing with the ADIZs of China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Forming a complex puzzle that like in the Senkakus is exactly under Japan's and China's ADIZs, noted CSIS.

She added when Beijing stated its ADIZ in the East China Sea in 2013, that the motive of China according to experts is to lay greater claim of the ECS that will allow more control. Another is the Japanese controlled Senkakus could be claimed. China was manipulating factors to get the facts on its side, but Tokyo did not have any of China's maneuvering.

Endgame for the CCP is taking the Senkakus Isle as Chinese territory with foreign policy. Sending flights of planes to confuse the Japanese is part of a crooked design as well on the Chinese. In the meantime, it is unlikely that the Chinese can even lay an inch on the disputed islands. Most of the flyovers are just for training when hostilities will happen. Beijing is lighting a powder key slowly.

According to Chinese China's foreign ministry, they told CNN that the PLA AF has been conforming to international law and international practice without malice to other countries.

As China's PLA AF and its sorties attempt to seek out weak spots in the Senkaku Islands, it shows Beijing's ill-intent.

Allegedly, China has a right to do flyovers in the disputed islands despite the objections of the Japanese. With the Japan ADIZ overlapping the area, the Chinese are observant of the defenses and the reactions. Chinese vessels and submarines conduct a silent war on Japan as well.

The total number of flights that have been recorded in seven years in the ADIZs of South Korea, Japan, Taiwan is 4,400 sorties. All indications show the Senkakus and Japan is the main target with 675 overflights done in 2019.

All these Chinese flights are usually intercepted by the F-15 of the Japanese Air Force, but mostly the U.S. Fighter is used because of its capabilities.