China's Defence Ministry on Thursday accused Japanese air force jets of locking their radars on to Chinese military aircraft, acting provocatively and endangering safety, after Japan said it is scrambling a record number of fighter jets.
China and Japan have long been mired in a territorial dispute over a group of tiny, uninhabited East China Sea islands, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
Patrol ships and fighter jets from Asia's two biggest economies have been shadowing each other on and off near the islets, raising fears that a confrontation could result in a clash.
In the six months ending in September, Japanese fighters scrambled to chase Chinese planes 407 times compared with 231 times in the same period last year, the Japanese Air Self-Defence Force said in mid-October, an increase of about three-quarters.
