A newly declassified dossier by the US Department of Defense includes dozens of photos and video footage representing 15 incidents of "risky" practices involving Chinese aircraft, although the Pentagon says it has material from more than 180 incidents.
The footage shows numerous types of Chinese aircraft, including JH-7, J-10, J-11, and Su-30 fighter aircraft, escorting US spy planes at close range. The closest encounters show the aircraft just 25 feet apart, with the Chinese pilots clearly visible from inside the American aircraft, while others show the Chinese jets some 900 feet away.
Images and video newly released by the US Defense Department capture a PLA fighter jet in the course of conducting a coercive and risky intercept against a lawfully operating U.S. asset in the South China Sea, including by approaching a distance of just 40 feet before repeatedly flying above and below the U.S. aircraft and flashing its weapons. After the U.S. operator radioed the PLA fighter jet, the PLA pilot responded using explicit language, including an expletive.
Images and video newly released by the US Defense Department capture a PLA fighter jet in the course of conducting a coercive and risky intercept against a lawfully operating U.S. asset in the East China Sea. Over the course of five hours, four PLA aircraft conducted this intercept, at one point reaching a distance of just 75 feet from the U.S plane. The plane is releasing a defensive flare.
Some incidents include flare-firing, a defensive countermeasure against heat-seeking missiles that can also be used for harassment purposes, and in one incident, a Chinese fighter flies in front of the US spy plane, forcing it to fly through the Chinese jet’s engine wash.
In one encounter, the Chinese pilot can be seen snapping a photo of the US spy plane just as the Americans snap a photo back.
“All of these examples we’ve released today underscore the coercive intent of (China) by engaging in behaviors particularly in international airspace,” Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, told US media.
Images newly released by the US Defense Department capture a PLA fighter jet in the course of conducting a coercive and risky intercept against a lawfully operating U.S. asset in the East China Sea. Over the course of five hours, four PLA aircraft conducted this intercept, including by approaching a distance of just 40 feet and taking pictures of the U.S. plane.
“The bottom line is that in many cases, this type of operational behavior can cause active and dangerous accidents” and can lead inadvertently to conflict,” Ratner said.
In 2017, the US began a major shift in its strategic thinking, moving away from the War on Terror that had dominated its concerns for most of the 21st century until that point and beginning to focus on what it characterized as “great power competition” with Russia and China. The US accused the two nations of seeking to upend the US-led “rules-based international order” and declared its intent to halt China’s rise, moving extensive military assets to the Indo-Pacific region and stepping up its reconnaissance operations against China.
That has included a dramatic increase in spy plane flights off the Chinese coast, which have caused problems for civilian air traffic, especially when US planes have attempted to disguise themselves as civilian aircraft. It has also led to numerous close encounters as Chinese patrol craft are scrambled to intercept US planes that fly too close to their airspace - a standard practice for all nations, including the US.
Li also took a swing at the US, saying “its so-called 'rules-based international order' never tells you what the rules are, and who made these rules. It practices exceptionalism and double standards and only serves the interests and follows the rules of a small number of countries.”
Earlier this week, a Chinese J-10 fighter intercepted a Canadian CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft in the South China Sea, flying close to the plane and launching flares, which Ottawa officials characterized as “reckless” and “unsafe.” However, Beijing officials said the Canadians had violated Chinese airspace.
In April 2001, a Chinese fighter jet collided with a US spy plane off the coast of the Hainan Island in the South China Sea. While the US Navy’s EP-3E Aries II signals intelligence aircraft managed to limp to a Chinese airfield on the island and land, the PLA Air Force J-8 fighter crashed, with the missing pilot presumed dead. The 24 crew on the EP-3E were detained and interrogated by Chinese authorities, but released after the US apologized.