“The incident occurred in global airspace during a routine US patrol in the South China Sea”.
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In a statement, the Pentagon condemned the Chinese military for making an “unsafe” interception of the USA aircraft while it was carrying out a “routine” patrol of the disputed waters on Tuesday.
The Pentagon statement said the Department of Defense (DoD) was addressing the latest incident through military and diplomatic channels. Over the past year, we have seen improvements in PRC (Peoples Republic of China) actions, flying in a safe and professional manner.
“China seems to be going on a trajectory of taking an increasingly muscular approach” toward the USA presence in the region, said William Choong, a Singapore-based researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a security think tank.
In an annual report to Congress, the Pentagon said Beijing had been using “coercive tactics” to assert its claims in the South China Sea.
China claims majority of the territories in the South China Sea where a hefty $5 trillion worth of ship-borne trade passes through annually.
The Philippines recently agreed to host a permanent American military presence across five bases that will support rotational deployments near the South China Sea. “The US toughness militarily is backed by domestic public opinion and congressional voices”.
The latest incident comes ahead of President Barack Obama’s scheduled visit to Japan and Vietnam during his Asia trip from May 21 to 28.
In that incident, three Chinese fighter jets monitored the US destroyer, along with three Chinese ships, until the American vessel left the area.
Such maneuvering over islands in the southern part of the South China Sea has compounded China’s irritation at periodic US surveillance flights in airspace close to the Chinese mainland.
Such spy flights have led to serious clashes and hurt bilateral ties before, including the collision in 2001 of a Chinese PLA Navy J-8 fighter jet and a US Navy EP-3 spy plane off China’s Hainan Island that caused the death of Chinese pilot Wang Wei. The Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan, among others, have also laid claim to certain reefs and atolls there.
Greg Poling of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies said China could be expressing anger at United States movements there. They have therefore sent out multiple military patrols close to the islands to test the waters, enraging China. The US Navy plane EP-3 was then conducting reconnaissance close to China’s Hainan Dao.
Ties between the United States and China continue to simmer as Beijing aircraft intercept a military spy plane from the Western country, a feat Washington called “unsafe”.
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A 11-day standoff ensued as Beijing interrogated the 24 USA crew, seriously straining relations between the countries, and China went on to hold the plane for several months.
