Ryan Chan
Japanese fighter jets scrambled on Monday as China sent an unmanned aerial vehicle over a strategic waterway near the southwestern islands of Japan.
A Chinese TB-001 reconnaissance and attack drone flew from the East China Sea and transited the Miyako Strait, the Japanese Defense Ministry's Joint Staff Office said. Newsweek's map roughly illustrates the flight path taken by the drone as it circled over waters south of the strait before returning.
The Miyako Strait separates the Japanese island of Miyako and and Okinawa. It is an important gateway for Chinese naval deployments to the Philippine Sea and wider Pacific Ocean, as well as a potential maritime choke point in wartime due to U.S. and Japanese missile systems installed there.
The Japan Self-Defense Forces regularly monitor and report the movements of Chinese and Russian military aircraft inside Japan's air defense zone, shown in the map as a dashed white line.
China's Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a Newsweek email seeking comment about the TB-001's maneuvers.
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