Chinese jets intercepted US surveillance plane, says officials

Two Chinese SU-30 fighter jets take off from an unspecified location to fly a patrol over the South China Sea. File picture: Jin Danhua/Xinhua via AP

Two Chinese SU-30 fighter jets take off from an unspecified location to fly a patrol over the South China Sea. File picture: Jin Danhua/Xinhua via AP

Published Jul 25, 2017

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Washington - Two Chinese fighter jets

intercepted a US Navy surveillance plane over the East China

Sea at the weekend, with one jet coming within about 300 feet

(91 meters) of the American aircraft, US officials said on

Monday.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said

initial reports showed one of the Chinese J-10 aircraft came

close enough to the US EP-3 plane on Sunday to cause the

American aircraft to change direction.

One of the officials said the Chinese jet was armed and the

interception happened 80 nautical miles (148 km) from the

Chinese city of Qingdao.

The Pentagon said the encounter between the aircraft was

unsafe, but added that the vast majority of interactions were

safe.

China's Defence Ministry said the actions of its pilots were

"legal, necessary and professional" and performed "in accordance

with the law and the rules".

"Close-in reconnaissance by US aircraft threatens China's

national security, harms Sino-US maritime and air military

safety, endangers the personal safety of both sides' pilots and

is the root cause of unexpected incidents," it said.

The United States should immediately stop these military

activities, which are unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly, it

added.

Incidents such as Sunday's intercept are relatively common.

In May, two Chinese SU-30 aircraft intercepted a US aircraft designed to detect radiation while it was flying in

international air space over the East China Sea.

China closely monitors any US military activity around its

coastline.

In 2001, an intercept of a US spy plane by a Chinese

fighter jet resulted in a collision that killed the Chinese

pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing

at a base on Hainan.

The 24 US air crew members were held for 11 days until

Washington apologized for the incident. That encounter soured

US-Chinese relations in the early days of President George W.

Bush's first term in office.

Separately, the Pentagon said the US military would soon

carry out another test of it's Terminal High Altitude Area

Defense (THAAD) system.

"These tests are done as a routine measure to ensure that

the system is ready and... they are scheduled well in advance of

any other real world geopolitical events going on," Pentagon

spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters.

The director of the Missile Defense Agency, Lieutenant

General Sam Greaves, said in a statement that a test would be

carried out at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska.

Last month the United States shot down a simulated, incoming

intermediate-range ballistic missile similar to the ones being

developed by countries like North Korea, in a test of the

nation's THAAD missile defenses.

The United States deployed THAAD to South Korea this year to

guard against North Korea's shorter-range missiles. That has

drawn fierce criticism from China, which says the system's

powerful radar can penetrate deep into its territory. 

Reuters

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