China intercepta avión espía gringo

Pentagon Says Chinese Fighter Jet Confronted American Navy Plane

By HELENE COOPERAUG. 22, 2014


WASHINGTON — A Chinese fighter jet flew within 30 feet of a Navy surveillance and reconnaissance plane this week in international airspace just off the Chinese coast, the Pentagon said Friday.

The encounter, known as an intercept, was “very, very close, very dangerous,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.

The Pentagon filed a diplomatic complaint with the People’s Liberation Army on Friday morning, Defense Department officials said. As of Friday afternoon, it had not received a reply.

The episode, which occurred on Tuesday, began with the Chinese warplane flying closely underneath the Navy’s P-8 Poseidon. It then moved parallel to the naval plane, with the wingtips of the two aircraft separated by less than 30 feet.

As a final maneuver, the Chinese fighter executed a barrel roll, apparently to show off its weapons payload to the American pilot. A barrel roll is just as it sounds: A fighter jet rolls over and then levels out. Admiral Kirby called it an aggressive move.

“We have registered our strong concerns to the Chinese about the unsafe and unprofessional intercept, which posed a risk to the safety and the well-being of the air crew and was inconsistent with customary international law,” he said.

The intercept is bound to increase tensions between the Pentagon and the Chinese military, already high because of Beijing’s aggressive actions against Japan and other American allies concerning territory in the East and South China Seas.

Earlier this year, China refused to invite Japan to a naval parade it hosted, which the Defense Department then boycotted as well. One American defense official lamented the episode as “so totally high school.”

This time, the encounter was more serious, particularly given that a Chinese fighter jet collided with a United States Navy spy plane in April 2001 in the skies above Hainan Island. The Chinese pilot was killed, and the American plane was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan.

After the collision, the Chinese authorities detained the American crew for over a week and initially issued an angry statement saying that “the U.S. side has total responsibility for this event.”

Adm. Dennis C. Blair, then commander in chief of the United States Pacific Command, issued his own angry statement, charging that the Chinese plane had been tailing the American jet, a practice Beijing’s military had increasingly adopted. “It’s not a normal practice to play bumper cars in the air,” Admiral Blair said at the time.

China has continued to show off its military prowess to the United States in the 13 years since the Hainan collision. In 2011, when Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited China, the military there greeted him with an unexpected and, in the view of American military officials, provocative test of a stealth fighter jet. The bold show of force surprised the Americans and also, it appeared, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao.

This year, when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited China, the military greeted him with a tour of the country’s lone aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, that the United States government had long sought. American officials interpreted that visit as another indication of China’s resolve to project its naval power.

In part, military analysts say, China wants to assert power over nearby seas and its airspace because of tensions with its neighbors over disputed islands in the East and South China Seas.

Admiral Kirby said there was no “Machiavellian intent” in the three-day delay in reporting the confrontation this week. “I think we needed to process the information and kind of figure out what really happened,” he said. “And I also believe — and I think this was the right course, too — we wanted to make sure that we had taken the opportunity to register our deep concern.”

“It made no sense to go public with that until we had a chance to deliver that démarche, which we did,” he added.

A version of this article appears in print on August 23, 2014, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Pentagon Says Chinese Fighter Jet Confronted American Navy Plane. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe

Chinese fighter jet made ‘dangerous intercept': US

By Reuters

August 22, 2014 | 11:48pm
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This handout photo provided by the Office of the Defense Secretary (OSD), taken Aug. 19, 2014, shows a Chinese fighter jet that the Obama administration said Friday conducted a "dangerous intercept" of a U.S. Navy surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft off the coast of China in international airspace. Photo: AP
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The United States charged on Friday that a Chinese fighter pilot conducted a “dangerous intercept” of a Navy patrol plane in international air space this week, flying a few yards (meters) from the U.S. jet and performing acrobatic maneuvers around it.

Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the United States lodged a formal diplomatic protest with Beijing over the incident, which took place on Tuesday 135 miles (215 km) east of Hainan Island, site of a sensitive Chinese submarine base.

Kirby said the Chinese fighter jet made several passes at the P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine and reconnaissance plane, crossing over and under it. At one point, the jet flew wingtip-to-wingtip about 10 yards (9 meters) from the Poseidon, then performed a barrel roll over the top of it, he said.

“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.

“This kind of behavior not only is unprofessional, it’s unsafe,” he said. “And it is certainly not in keeping with the kind of military-to-military … relations that we’d like to have with China.”

In April 2001, a similar aggressive intercept of U.S. EP-3E spy plane by a Chinese F-8 fighter in the same area resulted in a collision that killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing at a base on Hainan.

The 24 U.S. air crew members were held for 11 days until Washington apologized for the incident, which soured U.S.-Chinese relations in the early days of President George W. Bush’s first administration.

The Obama administration condemned the latest incident, with Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes calling it a “deeply concerning provocation.”

A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft takes off from Perth International Airport.Photo: Reuters
“What we’ve encouraged is constructive military-to-military ties with China and this type of action … clearly violates the spirit of that engagement, and we’ve made our concerns known directly to Beijing,” he said.

The U.S. and Chinese militaries have boosted their contacts in recent years amid recognition that as China’s economic interests continue to expand it will play a bigger security role in the world and have more interactions with the U.S. military.

Chinese ships recently participated for the first time in the U.S.-sponsored Rim of the Pacific naval exercises, the world’s largest. U.S. officials say they hope the increasing contacts will help avoid misunderstandings as they operate in closer proximity to each other.

But even as U.S. and Chinese military contacts have expanded, tensions between China and its neighbors, some of them U.S. treaty allies, have heightened over competing territorial claims in the South China and East China seas.

China unilaterally imposed an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea last year, requiring aircraft entering the region to report flight plans to Chinese authorities and to reply to identification inquiries. Washington criticized the move and the U.S. military has ignored the requirements.

The United States and China have differing views about the legality of U.S. military overflights in much of the region as a result of China’s broad territorial claims and differing interpretations of rights conveyed under the Law of the Sea treaty.

US accuses China fighter of reckless mid-air intercept
A Chinese fighter jet that the Obama administration on Friday said conducted a "dangerous intercept" of a US Navy surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft off the coast of China in international airspace (19 August 2014) The US has released photographs of the Chinese Su-27 aircraft which it says was responsible for carrying out the dangerous manoeuvres
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A Chinese fighter came perilously close to a US military patrol plane over international waters east of China's Hainan Island, the Pentagon has said.

Spokesman John Kirby said that the US had protested to the Chinese military over the mid-air intercept, calling the fighter pilot's actions "unsafe and unprofessional".

He said that the Chinese aircraft came within 10 metres of the US Navy plane.

Correspondents say that it is the fourth such incident since March.

So far there has been no comment about the reported near-miss from China.

Rear Admiral Kirby said that the incident happened on Tuesday when an armed Chinese Su-27 fighter intercepted a US Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft that was on a routine mission.
Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm John Kirby (22 August 2014) Rear Adm Kirby was highly critical of the conduct of the Chinese pilot

"We have registered our strong concerns to the Chinese about the unsafe and unprofessional intercept, which posed a risk to the safety and the well-being of the air crew, and was inconsistent with customary international law," he said.

He said that the Chinese manoeuvre detracted from efforts to improve American relations with China's military.

The warplane flew close to the surveillance aircraft three times, he said, flying above, underneath and alongside it. At one point it performed "a barrel roll" in an apparent display of its weapons.

Rear Adm Kirby said that the Chinese manoeuvre was "very, very close, very dangerous".

Near-misses between aircraft and naval vessels of the US and China are commonplace off the coast of China.

In December China said one of its warships "encountered" a US guided missile cruiser, confirming US reports of a near-collision in the South China Sea.

Shortly before this incident China set up an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, and said that aircraft flying through the zone must follow its rules, including filing flight plans.

The US, Japan and South Korea have rejected China's zone, and flown undeclared military aircraft through it. The US has called the move a unilateral attempt to change the status quo in the region.

The most serious incident in recent years however took place in 2001, when a Chinese fighter jet collided with a US Navy EP-3 spy plane, killing the Chinese pilot.
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Pentagon: No Plan to Reduce Spy Flights
Chinese general says interceptors should fly closer
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A U.S. Global Hawk surveillance drone
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A U.S. Global Hawk surveillance drone / AP

BY: Bill Gertz Follow @BillGertz
August 26, 2014 6:15 pm

The Pentagon on Tuesday rejected demands by China that the United States end all surveillance flights along China’s borders.

“We’re going to continue to fly in international airspace the way we’ve been, just like we’re going to continue to sail our ships in international waters the way we’ve been,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Chinese military commentators stepped up criticism of the U.S. military for the encounter Aug. 19 between a Navy P-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft and a Chinese Su-27 interceptor jet and said more aggressive intercepts could be expected in the future.

The Pentagon said the jet flew within 20 feet of the P-8 in dangerous aerial maneuvers.

Kirby said the United States would not reduce its posture in the Pacific.

“The United States is a Pacific power; we have responsibilities—five of seven treaty alliances in the Pacific region,” he said. “We’re going to meet those security commitments. We want to do this in an open and transparent way. We want to share as much information with our allies and partners and with China as we can, and we want to do that. But none of that cooperation is aided along by that kind of reckless behavior by that particular pilot.”

One Chinese admiral said Chinese interceptors should fly closer to U.S. surveillance aircraft in future intercepts.

Rear Adm. Zhang Zhaozhong from the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University called for closer intimidating intercepts of U.S. aircraft. In the past, PLA jets lacked the technical capabilities were unable to put “enough pressure” on U.S. aircraft, he said, but now must apply more.

Zhang, quoted in the Party newspaper Global Times, also said China should begin surveillance flights of the United States in retaliation.

Other current and former Chinese military officials denounced U.S. surveillance flights in state-run media reports over the past several days.

Sr. Col. Li Li, also of the defense university, stated that China could not accept the Pentagon’s description of the flights as a routine mission and said intercepts would continue.

Retired PLA Rear Adm. Yin Zhuo said that the U.S. flights were legal under international law but characterized them as “dangerous and provocative.”

Chinese military efforts to thwart the surveillance flights were “reasonable,” he said.

Kirby said the incident was a setback for Obama administration efforts to develop closer military ties with the PLA, a goal outlined during a summit last year between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“It’s important that we continue to work at this relationship, absolutely,” Kirby said. “That is not made easier by incidents like we saw with the intercept of our P-8 patrol aircraft, which was on a routine mission in international airspace, and under no circumstances and under no rubric of military relations is it acceptable to fly a jet fighter around a reconnaissance airplane the way that was done.”

The Pentagon will continue to “look for avenues to try to increase the dialogue and the cooperation and the understanding and the transparency between our two countries, but again, that incident did nothing to help that along,” he said.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said in a statement Sunday that the Chinese J-11, Beijing’s designation for the Su-27, reacted to the flight of two Navy aircraft flying east of Hainan Island. Yang said the Chinese jet stayed a “safe distance.”

Yang said the United States should reduce the flights and eventually halt them.

Kirby on Friday, in harsh comments, called the Chinese pilot’s threatening aerial encounter “dangerous” and “unprofessional.” He called the Chinese jet’s maneuvers, including a barrel roll over the P-8, as posing a risk to the crew and violating international law.

The Chinese action was “very, very close; very dangerous,” Kirby said.

In response to the criticism, Yang said in the Defense Ministry statement that the U.S. charges were “totally groundless” and described U.S. military flights as “large-scale and high-frequency surveillance” that poses a threat to air and maritime safety.

At the Pentagon yesterday, Kirby rejected the spokesman’s comments. “We obviously take deep issue with that characterization of the incident,” he said.

Kirby said Navy officials will meet later this week with Chinese counterparts and he said he did not know “the degree to which this incident will come up” in the talk and referred questions to the Navy.

Last week, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeff Pool said in a statement that the Su-27 intercepted the P-8 135 miles east of Hainan Island.

“The intercept was aggressive and demonstrated a lack of due regard for the safety and well being of the U.S. and Chinese aircrews and aircraft,” Pool said.

“On three different occasions, the Chinese J-11 crossed directly under the U.S. aircraft with one pass having only 50 to 100 feet separation between the two aircraft,” Pool said. “The Chinese jet also passed the nose of the P-8 at 90 degrees with its belly toward the P-8 to show its weapons loadout.”

Pool said the pilot who conducted the intercept is based at the same Hainan Island unit that was linked to other aggressive aerial intercepts in March, April, and May.

“We are concerned that the intercepting crews from that unit are acting aggressively and demonstrating a lack of regard for the safety of our aircrews,” Pool said. “We have raised our concerns over this unsafe behavior to the PRC.”
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Chinese Intercepts of U.S. Planes Expose Limits of Warming Ties
Some U.S. Officials Say Aggressive Maneuvers Could Involve Rogue Pilots


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By
Adam Entous and
Josh Chin
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Updated Aug. 24, 2014 3:33 p.m. ET

The U.S. says rogue Chinese pilots may be responsible for recent close encounters in airspace above the South China Sea. But as Sam Rogevveen of the Lowy Institute explains, China continues to flex its muscles in pushing its territorial claims in the region.

U.S. Navy planes have had a series of dangerously close encounters with Chinese fighter jets during routine patrols above the South China Sea, U.S. officials said, in what they described as an alarming trend that may involve rogue pilots.

The incidents complicate what has been an unusually cooperative period for the two militaries. They underscore how deep-seated suspicions remain, despite attempts by some senior officers and political leaders on both sides to build a working relationship.

The Pentagon on Friday made public what it characterized as a particularly aggressive encounter on Tuesday. U.S. officials later said that at least three similarly provocative incidents occurred earlier this year in the same general location, all in international airspace.

The earlier incidents prompted the U.S. to issue démarches, or diplomatic protests, to Beijing, U.S. officials said. In those démarches, the U.S. raised concerns about what it described as "the unsafe and unprofessional behavior" of Chinese pilots in the South China Sea, a senior U.S. official said.
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Lessons from China's Buzzing of a U.S. Aircraft

U.S. officials aren't sure why the incidents keep taking place in the same general location, and said the midair encounters may be attributable to a rogue pilot or group of pilots in a squadron responsible for intercepts in the South China Sea.

These officials said they don't believe the aggressive flying was directly authorized by the Chinese military.

"The Chinese are trying to be more active in establishing good quality military-to-military relations. There's just something different and unique about what's going on in the South China Sea," a senior U.S. official said. "Something's out of whack."

U.S. officials said the intercepts were alarming because they increased the chances of an unintentional collision.

Chinese fighters continue to conduct routine intercepts of Navy patrol aircraft in the East China Sea and other areas without incident, the officials said. In each of the dangerous encounters earlier this year in the South China Sea, the Chinese fighters moved unusually close to the Navy planes, they said.

In the earlier incidents, as on Aug. 19, the Chinese fighters performed a series of maneuvers at close range to the Navy aircraft, including cutting in front of its nose at a 90-degree angle and rolling over the top of the U.S. aircraft, according to U.S. officials briefed on the moves.

The encounters have generally lasted between four and five minutes. A senior U.S. official said the Navy has been flying the same route over the South China Sea for years. During encounters, the U.S. pilots are supposed to maintain a steady course to avoid increasing the chances of a collision and to document the Chinese pilots' behavior.

Washington and Beijing have painted clashing pictures of the Aug. 19 encounter between the U.S. Navy P-8 surveillance aircraft and a Chinese J-11 fighter well to the east of China's island province of Hainan.

The Pentagon says the Chinese jet acted aggressively, making multiple passes under the U.S. aircraft at close range, with the planes at one point coming nearly wingtip to wingtip and the jet rolling to expose its armaments. China's defense ministry rejected that depiction as "totally untenable," saying its pilot was professional and maintained a safe distance.
Earlier

Beijing Disputes U.S. Account of Intercept

Chinese Navy Rear Adm. Yin Zhuo, in an interview with state television on Sunday, expressed the view that the U.S. plane was likely tracking China's nuclear submarines. A major submarine base is located on Hainan. The U.S. P-8, which is capable of flying at speeds faster than most patrol aircraft, is specifically designed to look for submarines.

U.S. officials rebutted China's contention that the aerial maneuvers were acceptable. "The only place I know where 20 feet between wingtips is considered a safe distance is a Blue Angels show," a senior U.S. defense official said, referring to the Navy's aerobatic team.

Chinese officials had no immediate comment on the earlier incidents cited by U.S. officials.

The U.S. alarm over the midair encounters appeared to be at odds with recent public comments by top U.S. officials who have sought to showcase what they describe as improved military-to-military ties.

The U.S. and China disagree about an encounter Tuesday between a P-8 surveillance aircraft, shown above, and a Chinese fighter jet. Reuters

In June and July, China made its debut as a participant in the annual U.S.-led Rim of the Pacific drills, or Rimpac, the world's largest multinational naval exercise. In April, U.S. and Chinese naval officials, along with other Asia-Pacific naval chiefs, agreed to the region's first code of conduct for unplanned encounters between navy ships and aircraft.

Last month, U.S. Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, chief of naval operations, said that there had been no reports of harassment or bad behavior between U.S. and Chinese ships since the April code of conduct.

Wariness between the militaries, however, has remained and been exacerbated in part by the countries' strategies. China is trying to establish itself as a Pacific power after spending heavily for decades to build up its military. The U.S., meanwhile, has been trying to raise its presence in the region to reassure allies with whom Beijing is jostling over contested maritime claims.

Tuesday's interception by the Chinese fighter jet "was a form of admonishment" to the U.S. for spying at China's doorstep, said Xu Guangyu, a former People's Liberation Army general who now works as a senior researcher at the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association. "As long as the U.S. continues to undertake this kind of unfriendly action, China will continue to issue this kind of warning."

In July, for example, U.S. Navy officials revealed that China sent an uninvited surveillance ship to monitor the Rimpac exercises from international waters off Hawaii. Although the Chinese ship didn't enter U.S. territorial waters, U.S. Navy officials said it was the first time a Rimpac participant had sent a ship to spy on the drills.

China has also qualified its commitment to April's code of conduct. Shortly after the code was approved, a senior Chinese navy official said the rules were only recommendations and that China wouldn't necessarily abide by them in encounters in disputed areas of the East and South China seas.

China's Ministry of Defense didn't immediately respond to a query about whether the pilot of the J-11 fighter in this month's encounter was acting in accordance with the code.

Some analysts have said that China may be preparing to declare an air defense zone in the airspace above the South China Sea similar to one it announced last November for the East China Sea. A U.S. national security official has said such a move would be provocative and destabilizing.

The encounters have also exposed a long-running sore point about U.S. surveillance. The U.S. maintains all vessels have a right to freedom of navigation outside another country's territorial waters, which extend 12 nautical miles from the coast under international law. China has at times said that freedom doesn't apply to military surveillance and mapping and has bristled at the presence of U.S. military aircraft and ships coming so close to its shores.

"This happens all the time. China has shown quite a bit of restraint," said Mr. Xu, the retired general. He said that continued surveillance by the U.S. threatened to undo previous diplomatic efforts. "The U.S. actions are so contradictory. The two sides should be conducting more joint-exercises, mutual visits and the like. You shouldn't be doing things that irritate the other side."

The location and nature of the most recent interception recalls a 2001 incident in which a U.S. EP-3 spy plane collided with a fighter jet that Pentagon officials said was making dangerous maneuvers. The U.S. aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan. China held the American crew members for 11 days, in a diplomatic crisis that heightened the Pentagon's chariness about the People's Liberation Army.

—Kersten Zhang contributed to this article.

China says intercept of US spy plane was professional, urges end to close-in reconnaissance
Published August 24, 2014
Associated Press
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BEIJING – China's Defense Ministry rejected U.S. accusations that a Chinese fighter jet's intercept of a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft off the southern Chinese coast was dangerous, and blamed Washington for mounting large-scale and frequent close-in reconnaissance operations.

Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said the Chinese pilot conducted operations that were "professional and the Chinese jet kept a safe distance from the U.S. planes."

He called the U.S. accusations "groundless" in a statement issued Saturday night, and said that China was conducting "routine identification and verification" flights.

Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby gave a different account Friday of the Aug. 19 encounter about 135 miles (220 kilometers) east of China's Hainan Island. He said the Chinese jet made several close passes by the Navy P-8 Poseidon plane, coming within 30 feet (9 meters) of it at one point.

Kirby said that included the Chinese jet doing a "barrel roll" maneuver over the top of the Poseidon — a modified Boeing 737 — and passing across the nose of the Navy plane apparently to show that it was armed. Kirby said the Chinese jet's maneuvering posed a risk to the safety of the U.S. air crew and was "inconsistent with customary international law."

He said it was the fourth such incident since March of "close intercepts" involving Chinese jets.

The Chinese statement also said that a Navy P-3 Orion, an anti-submarine and surveillance aircraft, flew alongside the Poseidon. The Pentagon did not mention the second aircraft.

Tensions between the two countries have risen in the South China Sea, as China disputes territorial claims with U.S. ally the Philippines, Vietnam and other neighbors.

In 2001, a Chinese jet collided with a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft off Hainan Island, killing the Chinese pilot and forcing the Navy plane to make an emergency landing on the island. Washington severed military relations with China after that episode.

In the latest encounter, Yang blamed "the large-scale and highly frequent close-in reconnaissance by the U.S. against China" as "the root cause of accidents endangering the sea and air military security between China and the United States."