Less than a month ago, People’s Daily, the organ paper of the Chinese Communist Party, announced that Sino-Japan relations had gone from “ice to nice” since the two countries’ premiers exchanged visits. This was followed by news reports that China and Japan are to step up military exchanges, beginning with a visit to Japan later this year by Chinese defense minister Cao Gangchuan and a first-ever port call by a Chinese naval ship. Against this background, China’s official Xinhua News Agency ran an article on June 14th cautioning that Japan has achieved a major breakthrough in the development of military jumbo aircraft and has in fact overtaken China in the field. Japan’s new C-X cargo aircraft.

The article notes that Japan’s unveiling of its C-X cargo and P-X maritime patrol aircraft prototypes came shortly after China’s recent announcement of its own jumbo-aircraft program.The article states that,