US Military expresses outrage after Chinese Fighter Jet takes risky Maneuver over the South China Sea: Watch Video

INTERNATIONAL – “An unwarranted aggressive maneuver”. This Tuesday, May 30, the US military expressed its anger towards China, after an incident a few days earlier between a Chinese fighter jet and a US military reconnaissance aircraft operating over the China Sea. southern.

According to the US Army’s Indo-Pacific Command (IndoPacom), the Chinese plane flew on Friday “directly ahead and less than 120 meters from the nose of the RC-135, forcing the American aircraft through the turbulence in its wake”, as you can see in the video at the top of the article.

For its part, the Chinese government responded by denouncing a « provocation » American. “These provocative and dangerous maneuvers are the source of maritime safety problems”assured Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, believing that “The United States should immediately cease these dangerous provocations”.

“The frequent and long-term dispatch by the United States of ships and aircraft to carry out close surveillance of China seriously undermines Chinese sovereignty and national security”retorted Wednesday the spokeswoman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty and security.”she added.

“Routine operations without risk”

For its part, the American command assures that the RC-135, a military reconnaissance aircraft, “was conducting routine operations safely over the South China Sea and within international airspace in accordance with international law”.

A senior US military official speaking on condition of anonymity claimed there was “an alarming increase in the number of interceptions and risky aerial confrontations at sea” by Chinese planes and ships.

such acts “may create an incident or a dangerous calculation error”he added.

“We do not consider that (these interceptions) are carried out by pilots operating independently”said the senior official, also indicating: “We feel this is part of a larger repeated pattern”.

A similar incident involving a Chinese fighter jet and an American RC-135 had already taken place in December, forcing the American plane to “perform evasive maneuvers to prevent a collision”IndoPacom said at the time.

These incidents come at a time of already high tensions between Beijing and Washington over issues such as Taiwan or the flight of a Chinese balloon over US territory earlier this year.

See also on The HuffPost: