Taiwan warns of surge in tensions as Chinese fighter jets cross median line
Al JazeeraSep 01, 2023
The Facts
The US military on Tuesday accused the Chinese air force of orchestrating a "concerted" campaign of dangerous and provocative maneuvers against American military planes in international airspace. US Assistant Sec. of Defense for Indo-Pacific Affairs, Ely Ratner, warned, "This type of operational behavior can cause accidents, and dangerous accidents can lead to inadvertent conflict."
Ratner also alleged a "sharp increase in coercive and risky operational behavior in the East and South China seas," noting an incident in January where a PRC jet flew "hundreds of miles per hour" towards a US aircraft flying in international airspace. The Pentagon, which is set to issue its annual China Military Power Report, has already released footage of 180 encounters with Chinese aircraft over the last two years.
The Spin
Anti-China narrative
It's bad enough that China has risked the safety of US aircraft and personnel almost 200 times, but when you include its behavior toward other countries, that number rises to nearly 300. China doesn't care about the rules of international airspace and thinks it's acceptable to conduct reckless flight maneuvers as some kind of show of force. This could easily result in a physical military conflict — something neither Beijing nor Washington wants.
Pro-China narrative
By issuing this absurd statement, the US actually exposed itself as the aggressor in this airspace situation. The reason Beijing has flown aircraft near its US counterparts is because Washington, in 2022 alone, conducted over 600 close-space reconnaissance missions using spy planes. It's the US that disregards China's national sovereignty rights, not the other way around. This is yet another continuation of the US' xenophobic anti-China rhetoric.
