US called on to halt flights that threaten safety
Print Edition
CHINA yesterday called on the United States to stop unfriendly and dangerous military flights after two Chinese fighter jets intercepted an American surveillance plane over the East China Sea.
The US Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft took evasive action last Sunday after a Chinese J-10 warplane flew underneath it, slowed down and pulled up in front, the Pentagon said on Monday.
China’s defense ministry said the action of its pilots was “legal, necessary and professional.”
“The US military aircraft coming near China’s border and carrying out reconnaissance has threatened China’s national security, damaged Sino-US military air and sea safety, endangered the personal safety of both pilots,” it said in a statement.
“The US side should immediately stop such unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly dangerous military activities and take practical measures to add positive energy to the development of Sino-US military relations.”
Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang criticized frequent close-in surveillance runs by US planes as raising the chance of accidents, saying such missions “threatened China’s national security, harmed China-US sea-air military safety, endangered the safety of pilots from the two sides and were the root cause of China-US sea-air unexpected incidents.”
The US should stop such “unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly military activities,” Ren said, in a repetition of China’s standard policy toward US surveillance missions intended at collecting Chinese computer and voice data in the hope of gaining insight into the workings of the People’s Liberation Army.
Asked about the incident at a daily briefing, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China objected to such missions but remained “committed to building military mutual trust with other countries.”
US Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the Chinese fighters intercepted the US EP-3 surveillance plane on Sunday in international airspace between the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, west of the Korean Peninsula.
Davis said one of the Chinese planes approached at a high rate of speed from beneath the American plane, then slowed and pulled up, prompting the EP-3 pilot to take evasive action. He called the Chinese pilot’s move “unsafe.”
China in 2013 declared an air defense identification zone over a partly contested portion of the East China Sea, demanding foreign aircraft declare their presence and follow Chinese orders. It wasn’t clear if Sunday’s encounter took place inside the zone.
Such incidents continue to occur despite an agreement between the two sides to prevent them sparking an international crisis, as happened in April 2001 when a Chinese jet collided with a US Navy spy plane over the South China Sea.
The Chinese pilot died and the US plane made an emergency landing in Hainan Province, where the 24-member crew were held for more than a week until Beijing and Washington cut a deal for their release.
(AFP/AP)
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
