Two Chinese fighter jets intercepted an American spy plane flying over the South China Sea earlier this week, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. The reconnaissance plane was in international airspace on Tuesday when, the Associated Press reports, the pair of Chinese fighters jets flew within 50 feet of the aircraft, forcing the pilot to drop altitude to avoid a collision.
“The incident occurred in international airspace during a routine U.S. patrol in the South China Sea,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said. “Initial reports characterized the incident as unsafe.” The overlapping claims in the South China Sea have made regional relations prickly between China and its neighbors, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, which have also made territorial claims to the waterway. Further exacerbating tensions has been China’s massive reclamation project on the Spratly Islands.
“China built harbors, surveillance systems, communications infrastructure, three airfields and logistics facilities in the archipelago, according to the Pentagon report, which accused Beijing of using ‘coercive tactics short of armed conflict’ to assert its territorial claims,” according to the Wall Street Journal. “The U.S. has also been conducting regular freedom of navigation operations in the sea—patrols designed to send Washington’s message that the waterway should remain open to all maritime traffic in the face of the disputes. During those patrols, Chinese ships and aircraft have regularly made their presence known to their U.S. counterparts, a well-worn game of military-to-military signaling that usually remains safe.”
