China military aircraft near Japan on routine training, says ministry

A Chinese military aircraft that flew through international airspace near Japan's southern islands, prompting Japan to scramble fighter jets, was on a routine training mission, China's state media reported on Thursday.

Japan's Defense Ministry said a Chinese Y-8 airborne early warning plane flew through airspace between Okinawa prefecture's main island and the smaller Miyako island in southern Japan out over the Pacific at around noon on Wednesday and later took the same route back over the East China Sea.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said the aircraft was on a planned training flight over the Pacific, the official China News Service reported.

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