This marked the first time China and Japan flung military assets at one another over the East China Sea island dispute. A line was crossed and staying behind it in the future will only be more difficult

China Newspaper Says To 'Prepare For The Worst' After 

Military Confrontation With Japan In The East China Sea

Robert Johnson

After repeatedly flying surveillance aircraft into disputed airspace with 

Japan, which made Tokyo scramble F-15s in response, China sent fighters of 

its own on Thursday into the East China Sea. 

A Friday press release out of China confirms the incident began when Beijing 

was flying a Shaanxi Y-8 on a "routine Thursday patrol" over the "oil and gas 

fields in the East China Sea."

The fact that the aircraft was a Shaanxi Y-8 is interesting in that the Y-8 isn't 

necessarily any one particular aircraft.

The Diplomat calls the Y-8 a transport plane, and it can be, but the aircraft 

has more than 30 variants. The Y-8 performs everything from Mineral 

Research, to Geophysical Surveying, to Electronic Warfare to Intelligence 

Gathering and one variant is simply an innocuous but lethal fully loaded 

gunship, with two heavy cannons and three heavy machine guns.

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