Beijing yesterday blamed US “provocation” for an incident last week in which a Chinese plane crossed in front of a US surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea.
The incident came at a time of frayed ties between Washington and Beijing over issues including Taiwan and the shooting down of an alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew over the US this year.
“The United States’ long-term and frequent sending of ships and planes to conduct close surveillance on China seriously harms China’s national sovereignty and security,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) said when asked about the latest incident.
Photo: AFP / Defense Visual Information Distribution System (DVIDS)
“This kind of provocative, dangerous activity is the cause of the security issues on the seas,” Mao said, calling on Washington to “immediately stop this form of dangerous provocation.”
“China will continue to take all necessary steps to resolutely protect its own sovereignty and security,” she said.
The US military on Tuesday said a Chinese fighter pilot had performed an “unnecessarily aggressive maneuver” near a US surveillance aircraft operating over the South China Sea last week.
Video footage released by the US military shows a Chinese fighter plane crossing in front of the US aircraft, which can be seen shaking from the resulting turbulence.
The Chinese plane “flew directly in front of and within 400 feet (122m) of the nose of the RC-135, forcing the US aircraft to fly through its wake turbulence” on Friday last week, the Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.
“The RC-135 was conducting safe and routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace, in accordance with international law,” it said.
The Pentagon said the incident was part of a pattern of behavior by China.
A senior US defense official said there has been an “alarming increase in the number of risky aerial intercepts and confrontations at sea” by Chinese aircraft and ships — actions that “have the potential to create an unsafe incident or miscalculation.”
The announcement of the latest incident came a day after the Pentagon said Beijing had refused a US invitation for US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to meet his Chinese counterpart in Singapore this week.
The senior US defense official said the timing of the announcement of the South China Sea incident was unrelated to China’s refusal of the invitation, adding that the information “was subject to the US military declassification process and US diplomatic communication process.”
Beijing said in response to reports of the Singapore cancelation that the US was “entirely responsible for the current difficulties in exchanges between the two militaries.”
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