Chinese warplane in ‘unsafe manoeuvre’ during interception of US reconnaissance aircraft: Pentagon

A Chinese aircraft performed an unsafe manoeuvre while intercepting an American spy plane last week, a Pentagon spokesman revealed on Tuesday – just as President Xi Jinping began his week-long state visit to the United States.

The interception occurred on September 15, about 128km east of the Shandong peninsula in the Yellow Sea and involved an American RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, said Peter Cook, the Pentagon spokesman.

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“The pilot reported that he felt ... the [Chinese] aircraft passed in front of his nose in an unsafe fashion,” Cook said.

“There’s no indication this was a near collision.”

The US Department of Defence is reviewing the report of the incident, Cook said.

He said last week’s interception was not similar to an incident in August 2014, when a Chinese  SU-27warplane flew to within 10 metres of a US Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol jet and conducted a barrel roll over the aircraft about 220km east off the coast of Hainan Island in China.

However, it was seen as the latest in a series of moves by China to assert the expanding reach of its military.

Republican US Senator John McCain said in a statement on Tuesday that last week’s interception was part of a “pattern of aggressive behaviour in the Asia-Pacific region” by China.