A Chinese fighter jet drew up near an Australian Royal Air Force Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft operating in the South China Sea and released aluminum-based countermeasures which got sucked into the plane’s engines, the Defence Ministry reported Sunday.
“Defence advises that on 26 May 2022, a RAAF P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft was intercepted by a Chinese J-16 fighter aircraft during a routine maritime surveillance activity in international airspace in the South China Sea region. The intercept resulted in a dangerous manoeuvre which posed a safety threat to the P-8 aircraft and its crew,” the ministry said in a statement.
Later in the day, Defence Minister Richard Marles provided additional details on the suspected incident, saying that after approaching the Australian aircraft and firing flares, “the J-16 then accelerated and cut across the nose of the P-8, settling in front of the P-8 at very close distance” and releasing a “bundle of chaff, which contains small pieces of aluminum.” Some of these pieces “were ingested into the engine of the P-8 aircraft,” he said.
Marles vowed that the incident “will not deter” Canberra from continuing its maritime surveillance activities in the South China Sea, saying that “freedom of navigation” in the maritime region was “fundamentally in our nation’s interest.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that he had been briefed on the incident, and that Canberra had “raised” its concerns with Beijing.
Chinese officials have not commented on Australia’s allegations. The People’s Republic is also yet to respond to Canadian accusations made earlier this week that PLAAF fighter pilots were regularly giving a Canadian spy plane operating near North Korea the finger while performing what Ottawa called “unsafe and unprofessional” intercepts.
China lays claim to wide swathes of the South China Sea, with Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines making their own claims to parts of the strategic shipping artery, which also happens to be rich in hydrocarbons and fishing resources. The United States and its allies, including Australia and Britain, have challenged Beijing’s claims, and have spent more than a decade conducting “freedom of navigation” missions in the body of water and forging bilateral security agreements with other claimants.
China has repeatedly slammed the US and its allies over these activities, urging them to mind their own business and moving to negotiate with South China Sea-adjacent nations on the creation of a regional maritime “code of conduct.”
Occasionally, Chinese warships and aircraft are directed to challenge US and allied planes’ and navy vessels’ ‘freedom of navigation’ jaunts. In October 2018, a Chinese warship nearly collided with a US Navy ship while chasing it through the body of water. Chinese military pilots have also been accused of trolling their US counterparts by “meowing” at US spy planes patrolling in disputed areas.