TOKYO — Tokyo’s defense minister said Friday it was “unacceptable” for China to blame Japan for close encounters between their military planes over the Pacific high seas last weekend. Japan says recent Chinese military activities in the Pacific — where Beijing’s two operating aircraft carriers were sighted simultaneously for the first time — reveal its intent to improve operational capacity in remote areas. Chinese officials have hit back, calling the carrier outings routine training. Japanese forces must “through warning and surveillance show Japan’s will and capability to deter any attempt of changing the status quo by force unilaterally,” the defense minister Gen Nakatani told reporters on Friday. Japan says Chinese fighter jets from the Shandong aircraft carrier flew “unusually close” — within 45 meters — to a Japanese military patrol plane on Saturday and Sunday. Also on Sunday, the Chinese jets cut across airspace in front of the Japanese plane at a distance that the patrol aircraft could reach within seconds, Tokyo says. On Thursday, Beijing offered its own explanation. “Th
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