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US-China relations
ChinaMilitary

China’s military involved in over 180 ‘coercive and risky’ incidents against US since 2021: Pentagon

  • Declassified footage shows ‘reckless manoeuvres’ by PLA jets approaching lawfully operating US assets, says official overseeing Indo-Pacific security
  • Beijing trying to ‘intimidate and coerce’ members of international community to give up their rights, he adds

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An image released by the Pentagon shows an intercept of a US warplane by Chinese aircraft in the Pacific Ocean in January. Photo: US Department of Defence via AP
Khushboo Razdanin New York
China’s military over the last two years has engaged in more than 180 incidents of “coercive and risky operational behaviour” against US assets acting lawfully in international airspace over the East and South China seas, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
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Declassified images and videos of “reckless manoeuvres” released by the US Defence Department showed Chinese jets discharging chaff or shooting off flares while approaching very near American aircraft at high speeds.

Since autumn 2021, there were nearly 300 instances of “risky intercepts” involving the PLA and aircraft belonging to American allies and partners, according to Ely Ratner, US assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security.

“Photos from the incident show a PLA fighter jet crossing in front of a lawfully operating US asset at a distance of just 100 yards,” Ratner said, describing an encounter from January.

A still from Pentagon video footage shows a US warplane being intercepted by a Chinese aircraft over the Pacific Ocean in May 2022. Photo: US Department of Defence via AP
A still from Pentagon video footage shows a US warplane being intercepted by a Chinese aircraft over the Pacific Ocean in May 2022. Photo: US Department of Defence via AP

“This is at speeds of hundreds of miles an hour and at an altitude of tens of thousands of feet.”

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