Chinese Fighter Jet Flew Across Nose of US Military Surveillance Plane

Two Chinese fighter jets passed dangerously close to an American spy plane in global airspace over the Yellow Sea, a U.S. official said Tuesday.

On Tuesday, as Xi spoke in Seattle of his desire to “build a new model of major-country relationship of no-conflict, no-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation”, the Pentagon divulged that a Chinese aircraft had performed an unsafe maneuver during an air intercept of a US RC-135 electronic intelligence-gathering aircraft on September 15.

“One of the maneuvers conducted by the Chinese aircraft during this intercept was perceived as unsafe by the RC-135 aircrew”. The Pentagon has not described the maneuver as aggressive, but said authorities were reviewing the incident; however, Senator John McCain called the intercept “dangerous” and cited it as proof that “China feels emboldened to continue its pattern of aggressive behavior in the Asia-Pacific region”.

But it was the latest in a series of moves by China seen as an assertion of the expanding reach of its military.

However, Cook did not specify how close the Chinese aircraft approached the the RC-135.

“The Chinese jet also passed the nose of the P-8 at 90 degrees with its belly toward the P-8 Poseidon, we believe to make a point of showing its weapons load”, Kirby said.

The collision left one Chinese pilot dead and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing on Hainan.

Issues of sovereignty are likely to come up during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s weeklong visit to Washington this week. The last incident took place in August 2014 over the nearby South China Sea.