U.S. Navy aircraft's overflight threatens territorial security: spokesperson
China's foreign ministry on Tuesday reiterated that U.S. should immediately stop its naval surveillance activities in China's territorial airspace in response to complaints from the U.S. officials about Chinese fighter jets intercepting a U.S. Navy surveillance plane over the East China Sea on Sunday.
Lu Kang, spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, told a daily briefing on Tuesday that U.S. Navy aircraft have frequently approached China's territorial waters to conduct surveillance activities, which had seriously threatened China's territorial security.
U.S. officials claimed on Monday that two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a U.S. Navy surveillance plane over the East China Sea on Sunday, with one of the Chinese J-10 aircraft coming within about 300 feet of the U.S. EP-3 plane, Reuters reported.
The Pentagon said that the encounter between the aircraft was unsafe.
"The U.S. should immediately stop relevant close surveillance activities, which could also help avoid the occurrence of similar incidents again," Lu said.
Lu noted that China has safeguarded the order and security of the flights over seas in accordance with the international law and rules and is committed to establishing military trust with other countries to properly control disputes.
The U.S. has no reason to accuse China since we have delimited the air defense area over the East China Sea, Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
"The U.S. has conducted surveillance activities under the excuse of its previous similar activities, which shows its hegemonic attitude. The U.S. should change its military strategy as China is no longer weak … Our will and capability to safeguard the sovereignty have increased and the U.S. should be aware of it," Wu Said.
This is the fourth interception of U.S. surveillance aircraft over China's territorial waters in 2017.
China' air force found U.S. aircraft conducting surveillance activities twice over the East China Sea in May after a similar incident over the South China Sea in February this year.
Only two such cases occurred in 2016, BBC reported.
"One reason for the increasing surveillance activities of the U.S. over China's territorial waters is that China's military power has been significantly enhanced recently, which might draw more attention from the U.S.," Song Zhongping, a military expert who has served in the PLA Rocket Force, told the Global Times.
And the U.S. wants to practice the principle of freedom of navigation, which it has advocated, and to contain China, Song said, adding that China should also prepare for a long-term confrontation with U.S. surveillance activities.
In 2001, an intercept of a U.S. spy plane by a Chinese fighter jet resulted in a collision that killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing at a base on Hainan, Reuters reported.
