TENSIONS OVER THE SENKAKU/DIAOYU ISLANDS

CHINA’S SENKAKUS OPERATIONS OVERSEEN BY PARTY TASK FORCE LED BY XI

Kenji Minemura

The Asahi Shimbun, February 4, 2013

BEIJING--China’s response to the Senkaku Islands dispute is now under the direct command and coordination of a top-level task force of the Communist Party of China, led by General Secretary Xi Jinping.

A source close to the Communist Party said the creation of the new task force, said to be modeled after the U.S. National Security Council, means that the dispute has become one of the most important issues for China along with reunification with Taiwan and others.

Tensions between Japan and China are mounting over the five uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Military sources told The Asahi Shimbun that the two countries scrambled fighter jets several times on Jan. 19, although no announcements were made publicly.

Two Jian-10 fighters took off from an air base outside Shanghai and followed a U.S. airborne warning and control aircraft, which carries a surveillance system for tracking other planes, north of the Senkaku Islands at a close distance, the sources said.

Two F-15 fighters of the Air Self-Defense Force then took off to counter the Chinese move, the sources said.

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