DHAKA: Japan’s prime minister Shinzō Abe warned China on Sunday against forcibly changing the regional balance of power, as reports said Tokyo had scrambled fighter jets in response to Chinese military aircraft flying near Okinawa.

Verbal skirmishing between Asia’s two biggest economies, who dispute ownership of an island chain, escalated as Beijing warned Tokyo that any hostile action in the skies against Chinese drones would be construed as an ‘act of war’.

‘We will express our intention as a state not to tolerate a change in the status quo by force. We must conduct all sorts of activities such as surveillance and intelligence for that purpose,’ Abe said in an address to the military.

‘The security environment surrounding Japan is becoming increasingly severe. This is the reality,’ he said, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1415 HRS, OCT 27, 2013
RoR/BSK