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Military Official Calls for a Powerful Chinese Air Force to Counter the U.S. and Japan at Sea

Senior Colonel Dai Xu, Director of the Marine Security and Cooperation Research Institute and a Professor a the National Defense University of the PLA China, recently published a commentary in Global Times (a division of People’s Daily). Dai recommended that China should develop a powerful air force to deal with the crisis in the open sea. He pointed out that "Japan has continuously dispatched F-15 fighters to intercept Chinese maritime surveillance aircraft and has deployed anti-submarine aircraft to harass China’s ocean surveillance ships.” “For Japan to send fighter jets is a qualitative change in diplomatic moves. … The Chinese Air Force has no choice but to come forward with equivalent or even greater efforts. The Chinese Air Force should develop a plan as soon as possible, have targeted training and deployment, make sure China is able to take immediate action when needed, and be able to win the war when in the fight.”

 “In the numerous exercises the United States and Japan have held, they not only directly targeted the Diaoyu Islands or the South China Sea waters, but also aimed at attacking China’s economically developed coastal regions. This requires that the Chinese Air Force cannot just be satisfied with having influence within its territorial waters and airspace; it must also have an awareness of the crisis and the ability to cope with it, to suppress the opponent’s intentions in a war on the high seas, and to suppress its adventures; it must even be able to intercept the enemy and destroy the enemy when going to war.” 
Source: Huanqiu, December 29, 2012 
http://mil.huanqiu.com/observation/2012-12/3430991.html