Beijing responded yesterday to complaints from the United States about a Chinese fighter jet’s dangerous interception of an American Air Force reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the South China Sea by demanding an end to such flights.
The incident adds to military, diplomatic and economic tensions between the sides over U.S. support for self-governing Taiwan, China’s refusal to engage in dialogue between their armed forces and Beijing’s flying of a suspected spy balloon over the U.S.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters at a daily briefing yesterday that China would keep taking measures it deems necessary to safeguard its sovereignty.
“The U.S. should immediately stop these dangerous provocations,” Mao said.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command called the Chinese plane’s actions an “unnecessarily aggressive maneuver,” adding to complaints that China’s military has become significantly more aggressive over the past five years, intercepting U.S. aircraft and ships in the region.
In a statement earlier, the U.S. military said the pilot of the Chinese J-16 fighter jet flew directly in front of the nose of the RC-135 conducting routine operations in international airspace last Friday.
