Collision of security interests lies at the heart of China-US military incidents in the South China Sea
Mark Valencia says run-ins between the two nations’ militaries will continue, no matter what safety rules are in place, unless and until a compromise deal can be struck
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei ( 洪磊 ) described the Pentagon statement as “not true” and said the actions of the Chinese aircraft were in keeping with safety and professional standards. He also said that China “demands that the United States immediately cease this type of close reconnaissance activity to avoid having this sort of incident happening again”.
Beijing and Washington offer differing versions of spy plane intercept in South China Sea
What, if anything, can be done to prevent future incidents like this?
The US-China military relationship has been strained by numerous air and sea incidents, involving Chinese challenges to American naval vessels and aircraft operating off China’s coast. Seeking to avoid similar dangerous incidents, last September, the two nations agreed on rules for military air-to-air encounters that were hailed in some quarters as “groundbreaking” and a “milestone”. These rules became a supplementary “annex” to the November 2014 “US-China Memorandum of Understanding On the Rules of Behaviour for the Safety of Air and Maritime Encounters”.
The rules are essentially drawn from and reiterate the 2014 “Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea” – a non-binding agreement among 21 countries led by the US and including China. They deal mainly with communications protocols.
