The Chinese government on Wednesday accused the United States of “provocation” after the incident between a Chinese fighter jet and a US reconnaissance aircraft operating over the South China Sea.
“An American RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft deliberately burst into our training area to carry out reconnaissance (operations),” Zhang Nandong, a Chinese military spokesman, said in a statement.
China sent planes to track and monitor the US aircraft “in accordance with laws and regulations”.
“These provocative and dangerous maneuvers are the source of maritime security problems,” said Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, saying that “the United States should immediately stop these dangerous provocations”.
The US military said on Tuesday that a Chinese fighter pilot had carried out “an unwarranted aggressive maneuver” near a US military reconnaissance aircraft operating over the South China Sea.
The incident came amid already high tensions between Beijing and Washington over issues like Taiwan and a Chinese balloon overflight of US territory earlier this year.
“The frequent and long-term dispatch by the United States of ships and planes to carry out close surveillance of China seriously undermines Chinese sovereignty and national security,” Mao Ning said on Wednesday. .
“China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty and security,” she said.
“Turbulence”
According to the US Army’s Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), the Chinese aircraft flew “directly ahead and within 120 meters of the nose of the RC-135 on Friday, forcing the US aircraft through turbulence in its wake.
The RC-135 was performing “safe routine operations over the South China Sea and in international airspace in accordance with international law”, INDOPACOM said.
Video images made public show a fighter plane passing in front of an American aircraft, which can be seen shaken by the turbulence resulting from this passage.
A senior US military official speaking on condition of anonymity said there was “an alarming increase in the number of interceptions and risky aerial confrontations at sea” involving Chinese aircraft and ships.
Such acts “may create an incident or a dangerous miscalculation”, he added.
“We do not consider (these interceptions) to be carried out by pilots operating independently,” the senior official said. “We feel this is part of a larger repeating pattern.”
A similar incident between a Chinese combat aircraft and an RC-135 had already taken place in December, forcing the American aircraft to “perform evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision”, IndoPacom announced at the time.
” Obstacles “
In this context, the Pentagon said on Monday that Beijing had declined the invitation issued by the United States for a meeting this week in Singapore between US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu.
But, according to the senior US official, this case and the latest incident over the South China Sea are not related.
Questioned on this subject on Wednesday, the Chinese Ministry of Defense neither confirmed nor denied the refusal of this invitation.
Beijing “attaches great importance to the development of military relations between China and the United States and communication at all levels,” Tan Kefei, the ministry’s spokesperson, said in a statement.
Washington is “fully responsible for the current difficulties in the exchanges between the two armies”, he added.
“On the one hand, the United States keeps saying it wants to strengthen communication, but on the other, it ignores China’s concerns and artificially creates obstacles, seriously damaging mutual trust between the two. armies”.
Lloyd Austin and other US officials are working to strengthen US alliances in Asia to counter Chinese actions in the region, though both sides have also at times played appeasement.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Vienna in May. And United States President Joe Biden recently said that relations between Washington and Beijing should “very soon” relax.