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A Chinese language fighter jet got here inside 10 ft of a U.S. Air Power B-52 bomber over the South China Sea this week in a nighttime maneuver that almost induced a collision, the USA navy mentioned on Thursday.
The pilot of the J-11 jet that drew near the B-52 in worldwide airspace on Tuesday evening “flew in an unsafe and unprofessional method” and with “uncontrolled extreme pace,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command mentioned in an announcement.
The U.S. navy additionally launched a grainy, black-and-white video that it mentioned confirmed the encounter. The midair clip, apparently filmed from the bomber, seems to indicate the jet drawing perilously shut. The New York Instances has not independently verified the video.
The assertion and video have been launched on the identical day that China’s overseas minister, Wang Yi, arrived in the USA for conferences with U.S. officers — together with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s nationwide safety adviser — and at a time of pressure between the 2 international locations over nationwide safety, financial competitors and different points.
Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Overseas Ministry, mentioned on Friday that “U.S. navy planes have traveled 1000’s of miles to indicate off their power at China’s doorstep, which is the foundation reason behind sea and air safety dangers.”
“It is usually not conducive to regional peace and stability,” she added, talking at an everyday information briefing in Beijing. “China will proceed to take resolute measures to safeguard nationwide sovereignty safety and territorial integrity.”
Chinese language officers have beforehand depicted Chinese language air intercepts of U.S. plane as affordable responses to overseas navy patrols that threaten the nation’s safety.
In June, China’s protection minister on the time, Gen. Li Shangfu, downplayed an episode through which an American naval destroyer slowed to keep away from a doable collision with a Chinese language Navy ship that had crossed its path because it moved via the strait between China and Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing claims as its personal.
Talking at a convention in Singapore, Basic Li mentioned in June that the easiest way to keep away from an accident was for international locations exterior the area, like the USA, to go away and “thoughts your individual enterprise.”
However the Indo-Pacific Command’s assertion on Thursday mentioned that the most recent close to miss was a part of a “harmful sample of coercive and dangerous operational habits” by Chinese language navy jets towards U.S. plane in worldwide airspace over each the South China Sea and the East China Sea, which separates China from Japan.
“The U.S. will proceed to fly, sail and function — safely and responsibly — wherever worldwide legal guidelines permit,” it mentioned.
The Pentagon instructed Congress in a report this month that it had recorded greater than 180 intercepts of U.S. plane by Chinese language navy forces within the Asia-Pacific area because the autumn of 2021 — greater than within the earlier decade. A few of these intercepts have been within the South China Sea.
China claims 90 p.c of the South China Sea, together with waters 1000’s of miles from the Chinese language mainland. It has alarmed a lot of Asia and the USA over the previous decade by asserting ever-greater management over sea, partially by constructing and fortifying outposts and airstrips on disputed island chains.
Claire Fu contributed analysis.
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