Pentagon: Chinese fighter buzzes US spy plane over South China Sea

The US military announced that a Chinese military plane came within 20 feet (6 meters) of an American air force reconnaissance aircraft and forced it to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision over the South China Sea last week.

The Pentagon said on Thursday that the close encounter followed what it called a recent trend of increasingly dangerous behavior by Chinese military jets, according to the Reuters news agency.

The US military said the incident involved a Chinese Navy J-11 fighter jet and a US air force Boeing RC-135 aircraft which is a fighter jet and reconnaissance plane. It took place on December 21.

“Americans are blatant about their spying on China, and it goes on all the time. And they're pushing across the board - they're messing around with Serbia, they're messing around in Syria, they're messing around with Iran, and they’re messing around with Belarus. It's looking like a World War,” New York-based journalist Don Debar told Press TV. 

According to a Thursday press release from the command, which is responsible for overseeing US military operations in the region, the Chinese Navy J-11 fighter pilot “flew an unsafe maneuver by flying in front of and within 20 feet of the nose” of a US Air Force RC-135 aircraft, which forced the American aircraft to “take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision.”

The US aircraft was “lawfully conducting routine operations” over international airspace, the command said.

A video of the incident provided by the command shows the Chinese jet flying near and off the nose of the US plane. As the two aircraft get closer to one another, the US plane takes evasive action to avoid a collision and descends away from the Chinese jet.

“The US Indo-Pacific Joint Force is dedicated to a free and open Indo-Pacific region and will continue to fly, sail and operate at sea and in international airspace with due regard for the safety of all vessels and aircraft under international law,” the command’s statement reads. “We expect all countries in the Indo-Pacific region to use international airspace safely and in accordance with international law.”

The United States regularly carries out what it claims to be “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea, challenging restrictions on naval passage imposed by China and other claimants.

Beijing has repeatedly asserted that it does not impede freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and says the United States is deliberately provoking tensions there.

Washington routinely sends warships and warplanes to the South China Sea to assert what it terms its “right” to “freedom of navigation.” China's military often drives away US warships in the sea.

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China claims the South China Sea in its entirety. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei have overlapping claims to parts of the waters. The United States, however, sides with Beijing’s rival claimants in the dispute.

China has always warned the US against military activities in the sea. Beijing says potential close military encounters between the air and naval forces of the two countries in the region may cause accidents.

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