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Dangerous airspace

August 22, 2014

The interception of a US Navy long-range mission aircraft by a Chinese fighter jet has upset Washington and could put strain on military ties between the two countries.

https://p.dw.com/p/1CzXc
US-Militärflugzeug auf der Suche nach MH370 - epa04167675 A United States Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon takes off from Perth International airport to take part in the search trying to locate missing Malaysia Airways Flight MH370, in Perth, Western Australia, Australia, 15 April 2014. Nine military aircraft, two civil aircraft, and 11 ships are assisting on 15 April the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The Bluefin-21 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), fitted with either sonar or a camera and can stay below for anything up to 20 hours at a stretch, has been deployed in the search on 14 April and is scanning the ocean floor for irregularities. The switch in tactics by the multinational forces comes six days after the last signal was picked up by the device the Ocean Shield is towing. 'We haven't had a single detection in six days, so I guess it's time to go under water,' Australian search leader Angus Houston told reporters in Perth on 14 April. Authorities have reasons to assume that the batteries in the plane's data and voice recorders have fully discharged and signals are no longer being transmitted. The last acoustic signals were detected on 08 April, exactly a month after the jet vanished into a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on board. EPA/RICHARD WAINWRIGHT AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT +++(c) dpa - Bildfunk+++
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

Washington has lodged a protest against China through diplomatic channels, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said on Friday.

He said a Chinese fighter jet had conducted a "dangerous intercept" of a US Navy aircraft and conducted an acrobatic "barrel roll" maneuver around it in international air space, apparently in a way that showed that the plane was armed.

The intercept took place on Tuesday 200 km east of Hainan Island. According to information provided by Kirby, the fighter jet flew as close as 7 to 10 meters close to the P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol plane.

At a news briefing in Massachusetts, where President Barack Obama is vacationing, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, called the intercept "a deeply concerning provocation" and suggested it could set back efforts to improve relations.

"What we've encouraged is constructive military-to-military ties with China, and this kind of action clearly violates the spirit of that engagement," Rhodes told reporters.

US-Chinese military ties were greatly strained in 2001 when a Chinese fighter jet collided with a US Navy surveillance aircraft off Hainan. The Chinese pilot died in the collision and the navy plane had to make an emergency landing. "In the longer term, the incident has implications for the right of US and other nations' aircraft to fly in international airspace near China," concluded a Congressional Research Service report for US Congress titled, "China-US Aircraft Collision Incident of April 2001" from October 2011.

sb/rc (AP, Reuters, AFP)