Chinese Fighter 'Intercepts' US Jet, Performs Acrobatics
Friday, 22 Aug 2014 04:20 PM
The United States charged on Friday that a Chinese fighter pilot conducted a "dangerous intercept" of a Navy patrol plane in international air space this week, flying a few yards from the U.S. jet and performing acrobatic maneuvers around it.
Rear
Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the United States lodged
a formal diplomatic protest with Beijing over the incident, which took place on
Tuesday 135 miles east of Hainan Island, site of a sensitive Chinese submarine
base.
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Kirby
said the Chinese fighter jet made several passes at the P-8 Poseidon
anti-submarine and reconnaissance plane, crossing over and under it. At one
point, the jet flew wingtip-to-wingtip about 10 yards from the Poseidon, then
performed a barrel roll over the top of it, he said.
"The
Chinese jet also passed the nose of the P-8 at 90 degrees with its belly toward
the P-8 Poseidon, we believe to make a point of showing its weapons load," Kirby
said.
"This
kind of behavior not only is unprofessional, it's unsafe," he said. "And it is
certainly not in keeping with the kind of military-to-military ... relations
that we'd like to have with China."
In
April 2001, a similar aggressive intercept of U.S. EP-3E spy plane by a Chinese
F-8 fighter in the same area resulted in a collision that killed the Chinese
pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing at a base on
Hainan.
The
24 U.S. air crew members were held for 11 days until Washington apologized for
the incident, which soured U.S.-Chinese relations in the early days of President
George W. Bush's first administration.
The
Obama administration condemned the latest incident, with Deputy National
Security Adviser Ben Rhodes calling it a "deeply concerning provocation."
"What
we've encouraged is constructive military-to-military ties with China and this
type of action ... clearly violates the spirit of that engagement, and we've
made our concerns known directly to Beijing," he said.
The
U.S. and Chinese militaries have boosted their contacts in recent years amid
recognition that as China's economic interests continue to expand it will play a
bigger security role in the world and have more interactions with the U.S.
military.
Chinese
ships recently participated for the first time in the U.S.-sponsored Rim of the
Pacific naval exercises, the world's largest. U.S. officials say they hope the
increasing contacts will help avoid misunderstandings as they operate in closer
proximity to each other.
But
even as U.S. and Chinese military contacts have expanded, tensions between China
and its neighbors, some of them U.S. treaty allies, have heightened over
competing territorial claims in the South China and East China seas.
China
unilaterally imposed an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea
last year, requiring aircraft entering the region to report flight plans to
Chinese authorities and to reply to identification inquiries. Washington
criticized the move and the U.S. military has ignored the requirements.
The
United States and China have differing views about the legality of U.S. military
overflights in much of the region as a result of China's broad territorial
claims and differing interpretations of rights conveyed under the Law of the Sea
treaty.
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Subject:
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US
Considers Fighting ISIS in Syria; Chinese Fighter Intercepts US Jet; Funds
Raised for Ferguson Cop
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Date:
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8/23/2014
8:51:06 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
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