An advanced Chinese military spy drone flew an hourslong sortie in the East China Sea on Tuesday in a likely reconnaissance operation against the United States and allied naval maneuvers in the area.
Newsweek's map, created using geospatial data released by Japan's Defense Ministry, traces the approximate flight path of the Chinese WZ-7 unmanned aerial vehicle, a drone designed for high-altitude, long-endurance surveillance.
The ministry's Joint Staff Office said Japanese fighter aircraft were launched to intercept the drone as it approached from the Chinese mainland and twice circled above waters in the East China Sea before returning in the same direction.
The disclosure appeared to place the spy drone northwest of Japan's Amami Oshima island and west of Kyushu, the southernmost of its four main islands, home to naval and air bases.
The UAV also approached the southern shores of South Korea's strategic Jeju Island, in an area where the two U.S. allies are expected to hold naval drills later this week alongside an American aircraft carrier strike group.
The WZ-7, which China dubs the "Soaring Dragon," was first unveiled in 2021 and is 47 feet long and has an 81-foot wingspan. The turbojet-powered reconnaissance drone is distinguishable in photographs by its joined-wing design.
While little is known about its present operational history, publicly available research suggests China's air force and naval air force collectively operate around 20 units, one of which was detected by Japan in the East China Sea in January 2023.
Japan regularly publishes the flight paths of Chinese and Russian military aircraft it intercepts inside its air defense identification zone, or ADIZ. This self-declared buffer beyond traditional airspace is where governments request notification and identification.
Its June 25 report was at least the fourth time it had spotted a Chinese drone in its nearby airspace this year, a list that included its intercept of a WZ-7 in the Sea of Japan in late March.
The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to Newsweek's request for comment.
On Wednesday, the SBS broadcaster, citing an unnamed military source in Seoul, said the WZ-7 had "violated South Korea's [ADIZ] south of Jeju Island on at least two occasions" and was at one point roughly 60 miles from the island.
The official told SBS that the WZ-7 flew within the overlapping air defense zones of South Korea, Japan, and China, which are shown in Newsweek's graphic as blue, white, and yellow.
The television station said the drone was likely spying on the activities of the U.S. Navy's Nimitz-class supercarrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, flagship of Carrier Strike Group Nine, which arrived in South Korea's port of Busan over the weekend, in a show of force amid tensions regional tensions with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The Roosevelt strike group, escorted by the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Halsey and USS Daniel Inouye, said it departed Busan on Tuesday ahead of Freedom Edge, the inaugural U.S.-South Korea-Japan multi-domain exercise beginning on June 28
Kim Kang Il, North Korea's vice defense minister, said this week that Pyongyang "strongly denounces provocative action of hostile forces with all possibilities of demonstrating deterrence," according to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
"It is a very dangerous play and adventure for the U.S. and the ROK to resort to the armed demonstration before the DPRK," Kim Kang Il said, referring to the Republic of Korea in the south and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north.
In the early hours of Wednesday, North Korea launched a suspected hypersonic missile in an apparent response to the upcoming trilateral drills. However, the launch failed after the rocket exploded in midair, the South's military said.
About the writer
John Feng is Newsweek's contributing editor for Asia based in Taichung, Taiwan. His focus is on East Asian politics. He ... Read more
