Alwaght- A United States spy plane has been intercepted by a Chinese fighter jet over the East China Sea while Secretary of State John Kerry was visiting Beijing.
This is the second incident involving US plane over the Chinese territories in less than a month.
A Chinese J-10 fighter plane intercepted a US Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft during a “routine mission” over the East China Sea. US defense officials claimed that the intercept was done in an unsafe manner ON Tuesday.
The officials claimed that Washington was alarmed by the Chinese fighter's “excessive rate of closure” on the US aircraft – meaning it approached too fast. According to CNN sources, the Chinese jet did not fly closer than 100ft to the US spy plane while it was on the mission.
Beijing insisted its fighter jet kept a safe distance and avoided making dangerous maneuvers, and demanded that Washington stop reconnaissance flights next to Chinese airspace.
“The United States continues close reconnaissance activity, which significantly undermines China's security at sea. This is what causes the problem. We urge the United States to stop this activity and prevent such incidents in the future,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told journalists at a briefing on Wednesday. China remains within its rights to take self-defense measures, Hong stressed.
Tensions have run high between Washington and Beijing over a reclamation project in the South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands. Beijing has various territorial disputes in the area – which is rich in deposits of natural resources – with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Beijing has called the US involvement in the dispute the “greatest” threat to the region.
Last month Beijing asked the US to stop its surveillance activities near China after two of its fighter jets carried out what the Pentagon labeled an "unsafe" intercept of a US military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea.
Late May, a high ranking Chinese government official issued a stern warning to the United States that it should stop its provocative mission in the South China Sea.
Speaking to a small group of reporters in Beijing on 19th May, a high-ranking Chinese official made his warning clear: The US should not provoke China in the South China Sea without expecting retaliation. "The Chinese people do not want to have war, so we will be opposed to [the] U.S. if it stirs up any conflict," said Liu Zhenmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Of course, if the Korean War or Vietnam War are replayed, then we will have to defend ourselves."
