Two Chinese fighter jets carried out an “unsafe” intercept of a US military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, drawing a rebuke from Beijing, which demanded that Washington end surveillance near China.
The incident, likely to increase tension in and around the contested waterway, took place in international airspace on Tuesday, as the US maritime patrol aircraft carried out “a routine US patrol,” a Pentagon statement said.
The encounter comes a week after China scrambled fighter jets as a US Navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea.
Another Chinese intercept took place in 2014, when a Chinese fighter pilot flew acrobatic maneuvers around a US spy plane.
The intercept occurred days before US President Barack Obama travels to parts of Asia from tomorrow to Saturday next week, including a G7 summit in Japan and his first trip to Vietnam.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which US$5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims.
Washington has accused Beijing of militarizing the South China Sea after creating artificial islands, while Beijing, in turn, has criticized increased US naval patrols and exercises in Asia.
The Pentagon statement said the US Department of Defense was addressing the issue through military and diplomatic channels.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) said the US statement was “not true” and that the US aircraft had been engaging in reconnaissance close to China’s island province of Hainan.
“It must be pointed out that US military planes frequently carry out reconnaissance in Chinese coastal waters, seriously endangering Chinese maritime security,” Hong told reporters at a regular press briefing yesterday.
“We demand that the United States immediately cease this type of close reconnaissance activity to avoid having this sort of incident happening again,” Hong said, adding that the actions of the Chinese aircraft were “completely in keeping with safety and professional standards.”
“They maintained safe behavior and did not engage in any dangerous action,” Hong said.
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense said in a fax that it was looking into reports on the incident.
The Pentagon has yet to release the precise location of the encounter.
While the precise location of the encounter is not yet known, regional military attaches and experts say the southern Chinese coast is a military area of increasing sensitivity for Beijing.
Its submarine bases on Hainan are home to an expanding fleet of nuclear-armed submarines and a big target for ongoing Western surveillance operations.
The Guangdong coast is also believed to be home to some of China’s most advanced missiles, including the DF-21D anti-ship weapon.
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