🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The Pentagon has declassified footage of People's Liberation Army fighter planes harassing American military aircraft with close approaches and aggressive maneuvers, highlighting a trend exhibited by Chinese forces in the last two years.
The photos and videos show 15 occasions Chinese military aircraft conducted unsafe aerial maneuvers in international airspace over the East China Sea and South China Sea since the beginning of last year.
Some Chinese jet fighters can be seen flying a recklessly short distance—sometimes less than 50 feet—off the American aircraft's wing. In other recordings, Chinese pilots exhibit other dangerous behavior, such as firing flares, flying in front of the plane and forcing it to take evasive action, or making high-speed passes so the larger plane has to fly through wake turbulence.
The footage was released ahead of the upcoming China Military Power Report, which Congress has asked the Department of Defense to compile each year. China "seeks to intimidate and coerce members of the international community into giving up their rights under international law," the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has raised the issue of such behavior in meetings with his former Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe and at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense summit in June.
Wei's replacement, Li Shangfu, also attended the summit but declined to meet with Austin because of U.S. sanctions imposed years earlier. Li hasn't been seen for several weeks and is likely to be formally replaced this month.
"The People's Republic of China continues to conduct an alarming number of risky intercepts of U.S. and allied aircraft flying lawfully in international airspace," Austin said. He also warned China that the U.S. "will not flinch in the face of bullying or coercion."
Austin has called on China's defense officials to maintain communication to avoid misunderstandings. The Defense Department voiced concern after their Chinese counterparts ignored attempts to contact them after the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon in February.
The release of the declassified material follows Canada's announcement Monday that one of its military surveillance craft had been intercepted by a Chinese fighter jet, which shot off flares and flew within 20 feet of it. A camera crew onboard captured the scene.
China territorial disputes with Japan in the East China Sea as well as several of its neighbors in the South China Sea. Chinese coast guard ships also regularly have run-ins with their Philippine counterparts, which have begun filming them.
Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon and Chinese Foreign Ministry for comment.
Update 10/19/23, 11:00 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more