A Chinese language fighter jet got here inside 10 toes of a U.S. Air Power B-52 bomber over the South China Sea this week in a nighttime maneuver that just about triggered a collision, america army mentioned on Thursday.
The pilot of the J-11 jet that drew near the B-52 in worldwide airspace on Tuesday night time “flew in an unsafe and unprofessional method” and with “uncontrolled extreme pace,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command mentioned in an announcement.
The U.S. army additionally launched a grainy, black-and-white video that it mentioned confirmed the encounter. The midair clip, apparently filmed from the bomber, seems to indicate the jet drawing perilously shut. The New York Instances has not independently verified the video.
The assertion and video had been launched on the identical day that China’s overseas minister, Wang Yi, arrived in america for conferences with U.S. officers — together with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s nationwide safety adviser — and at a time of stress between the 2 international locations over nationwide safety, financial competitors and different points.
China had no speedy touch upon the Pentagon’s assertion. Chinese language officers have beforehand depicted such air intercepts as affordable responses to overseas army patrols that threaten the nation’s safety. In June, China’s protection minister on the time, Gen. Li Shangfu, downplayed an earlier episode during which an American naval destroyer slowed to keep away from a doable collision with a Chinese language Navy ship that had crossed its path because it moved via the strait between China and Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing claims as its personal.
Talking at a convention in Singapore, Basic Li mentioned in June that one of the best ways to keep away from an accident was for international locations outdoors the area, like america, to go away and “thoughts your personal enterprise.”
However the Indo-Pacific Command’s assertion on Thursday mentioned that the most recent close to miss was a part of a “harmful sample of coercive and dangerous operational habits” by Chinese language army jets towards U.S. plane in worldwide airspace over each the South China Sea and the East China Sea, which separates China from Japan.
“The U.S. will proceed to fly, sail and function — safely and responsibly — wherever worldwide legal guidelines enable,” it mentioned.
The Pentagon informed Congress in a report this month that it had recorded greater than 180 intercepts of U.S. plane by Chinese language army forces within the Asia-Pacific area for the reason that autumn of 2021 — greater than within the earlier decade. A few of these intercepts had been within the South China Sea.
China claims 90 p.c of the South China Sea, together with waters 1000’s of miles from the Chinese language mainland. It has alarmed a lot of Asia and america over the previous decade by asserting ever-greater management over sea, partly by constructing and fortifying outposts and airstrips on disputed island chains.
Claire Fu contributed analysis.
