US Warns ‘Alarming Increase’ in Aggressive Chinese Intercepts

Voice of America News reports: “U.S. defense officials are warning of an ‘alarming increase’ in aggressive intercepts from Chinese military aircraft and vessels following a close encounter between a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. military plane in international airspace over the South China Sea last week.

These ‘risky’ intercepts have the ‘potential to create an unsafe incident or miscalculation,’ said two U.S. defense officials who spoke about the incident on the condition of anonymity.

On Tuesday, the U.S. released footage of what it called an ‘unnecessarily aggressive maneuver’ by a Chinese fighter pilot during an intercept of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft on May 26.

The Chinese pilot ‘flew directly in front of and within 400 feet (122 meters) of the nose of the RC-135, forcing the U.S. aircraft to fly through its wake turbulence,’ according to a spokesperson from Indo-Pacific Command, which oversees U.S. military activity in the region…”

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