US spy planes posing as airliners ‘serious threat’ in South China Sea

Beijing says US Air Force used fake identities at least 100 times this year, putting civilian flights at risk.

Accusation follows similar claim by think tank using open source aviation responder records

3-MIN READ3-MIN

An extract from the South China Sea Probing Initiative report from June 24, when it says it recorded four US surveillance aircraft operating near the strategic Bashi Channel. Photo: SCS Probing Initiative

Published: 6:00am, 19 Sep 2020Updated: 10:09pm, 19 Sep 2020

Beijing has accused the US of disguising the identities of its warplanes as civilian aircraft to spy on China at least 100 times this year, describing it as a “serious security threat”.

“It’s a common trick for the US Air Force to impersonate the transponder code of civilian aircraft from other countries … It is of a vile nature,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said earlier this week.

“We urge the US to immediately stop such dangerous provocations, to avoid accidents from happening in the sea and air.” Wang described Chinese records of American spy plane activity in the area as “incomplete”.

His remarks appeared to confirm a report by Beijing think tank the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) which it said showed US planes were electronically disguising themselves as civilian aircraft from Malaysia while flying over the disputed waterway. Malaysia has not confirmed or responded to the claim.

According to the SCSPI, which monitors activity in the South China Sea, between September 8-10 US spy planes disguised as Malaysian aircraft flew over the disputed Paracel Islands as well as the sensitive Taiwan Strait and the Yellow Sea near the Chinese coast, basing its conclusions on open source aviation responder records.