The United States has recorded more cases of “coercive and risky” behavior by Chinese pilots against American aircraft in the past two years in the East and South China Seas than in the entire previous decade, the top Pentagon official in charge of military operations said. security in the Indo-Pacific, on Tuesday (17).
“Since the fall of 2021, we have seen more than 180 such incidents,” said Ely Ratner, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs.
To detail the pattern behavior, the Pentagon released previously non-public photos and videos of Chinese fighter jets intercepting U.S. aircraft flying in international airspace.
The images, dating back to January 2022, show Chinese fighter jets getting dangerously close to US military jets in international airspace in an attempt to “intimidate them”, the Pentagon said in a statement about the incidents.
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Some of the Chinese fighter jets came within 20 feet of the U.S. planes, the videos show.
“It is a centralized campaign to carry out these risky behaviors in order to coerce a change in US lawful operational activity,” Ratner added.
An Aug. 10 photo shows a Chinese fighter approaching a U.S. jet, which had to carry out “defensive procedures” to avoid the Chinese plane that came within 15 meters and then “rolled” under the U.S. plane, said the Pentagon.
The photos and videos also show the Chinese jets launching objects and projectiles, including flares.
“As Secretary Austin has said on numerous occasions, the [Exército de Libertação Popular da China, ou EPL] can and must end this behavior, period,” said the commander of the US Pacific Command (Indopacom), Admiral John Aquilino, on Tuesday.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and other Pentagon officials “have already raised concerns about this behavior in a number of settings, including during the Secretary’s 2021 and 2022 engagements with General Wei Fenghe, then Minister of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as well as the Secretary’s public remarks at the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2022 and 2023,” the Pentagon said.
But the Pentagon’s efforts this year to talk to China’s military leadership have gone unanswered and U.S. officials have become increasingly concerned about the lack of military dialogue between the countries.
Beijing cut off communications after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last year, infuriating Chinese leaders.
“I asked to speak to my counterparts, the eastern and southern operations commanders, now, for two and a half years,” Aquilino said Tuesday. “I haven’t had any of these requests accepted yet.”
The release of the photos and videos comes as the Pentagon prepares to release its 2023 congressionally mandated “Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” also known as the China Military Power Report .
The report is an annual assessment that details the latest developments in China’s rapidly expanding and modernizing military. It also provides important information about China’s nuclear program.
Source: CNN Brasil
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