The US should "take concrete measures to decrease close-in reconnaissance activities against China towards a complete stop", defence ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said at a monthly briefing.
Yang's comments came with Beijing and Washington at odds over an incident last week in the skies 220 kilometres (135 miles) off China's Hainan island. The US said that an armed Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close to a US military aircraft, while China countered in a ministry statement carried on state media that the allegations were "totally groundless".
"The location of the incident is 220 kilometres from China's Hainan island," Yang said on Thursday. "It is not 220 kilometres from Hawaii in the United States and certainly not 220 kilometres from Florida. So the rights and wrongs of this case are very clear."
The encounter has raised comparisons to an incident in April 2001, when a Chinese fighter jet collided with a US Navy EP-3 spy plane around 110 kilometres off Hainan.
China's military spending and capabilities are increasing while the US military, long a presence in the region, strengthens its defence alliance with Tokyo, which is at odds with Beijing over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Yang said US ships and aircraft had long been engaged in "frequent, wide-range, close-in reconnaissance activities against China". Such missions "not only damage China's security interests but also damage strategic trust and the bilateral relationship between China and the United States". They could also "possibly lead to undesirable accidents", he said.
China's Global Times newspaper, which is linked to the ruling Communist Party, on Monday warned that Beijing could treat US surveillance flights as an "act of hostility". On Thursday, it said that if the US does not end them, China could carry out similar activities near US territory. Such an "option has become increasingly possible as China's military technologies are advancing", it said in an editorial.
- Separately, Taiwan said on Tuesday that its air force scrambled fighter jets the day before to track two Chinese Y-8 maritime patrol aircraft which intruded into the island's airspace.
- AFP/ec
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/china-defence-ministry/1334542.html
28/8/14
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Related:
US, Chinese Officials to Meet at Pentagon After Jet Intercept
China urges US to stop close-in surveillance
China warplane made 'dangerous' pass at US aircraft (Pentagon)
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China said on Thursday that it will continue responding to US military surveillance flights off its coast, rejecting American accusations that one of Beijing's fighter jets acted recklessly in intercepting a US Navy plane last week....
ReplyDeleteDefense ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said China's military would closely monitor US flights and reiterated calls for the US to scale back or end such missions altogether.
"According to different situations we will adopt different measures to make sure we safeguard our air and sea security of the country," Yang said at a monthly news briefing.....................http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/China-vows-to-respond-to-US-surveillance-flights/articleshow/41109267.cms
28/8/14
U.S., China security leaders spar over jet maneuvers...
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - Top U.S. and China security officials disagreed this week over what the United States said was China's intercept of a U.S. Navy patrol plane near the southern island province of Hainan.
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice, on a three-day visit to Beijing, told several senior Chinese officials that China must halt the "dangerous intercepts", senior Obama administration officials said.
However, General Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, called on the United States to "reduce and ultimately cease naval and aerial reconnaissance activities near China", according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The row began in August when the United States complained that a Chinese military aircraft had launched a risky intercept of a U.S. Navy patrol plane in international air space. The Chinese pilot flew a few yards from the U.S. plane and performed acrobatic maneuvers around it, the Pentagon said.
China said the pilot had done nothing wrong and that U.S. surveillance patrols harm China's national security interests.
Despite the disagreement over the incident, Obama administration officials called Rice's dialogue with Chinese leaders on the issue "constructive" and added China took U.S. concerns seriously.
The two countries are working to adopt new confidence-building measures, they said, without elaborating on what the measures would entail...................http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/10/us-china-usa-military-idUSKBN0H418R20140910?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
10/9/14