China-US rivalry: PLA monitored American warplane as it flew over Taiwan, PLA source says

People’s Liberation Army tracked flight over Taipei on Wednesday ‘to ensure the operation did not have a malicious intent’, military insider says

US and Taiwanese air forces had earlier denied any such flight ever happened

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China was watching closely as a US reconnaissance aircraft flew over Taipei on Wednesday, a military insider says. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:42pm, 24 Oct 2020Updated: 11:11pm, 24 Oct 2020

An American warplane was monitored by China’s military as it flew over northern Taiwan this week, according to a PLA source, despite the United States denying – after first acknowledging – that any such flight ever took place.

The incident began when two flight tracking services – Golf9 and Tokyo Radar – reported on Twitter on Wednesday that an aircraft with the serial number 62-4134 had flown through Taipei’s airspace at an altitude of 31,500 feet.

Although Taiwan’s air force dismissed the reports as fake news, the US Air Force on Wednesday confirmed that one of its RC-135W electronic surveillance planes had been in the area at the time of the reported sighting.

“I can confirm that an RC-135W aircraft did fly over the northern portion of Taiwan yesterday as part of a routine mission,” the US Pacific Air Forces’ public affairs department said in a statement published by military news website The War Zone.

“Due to operational security, we are not able to discuss the specifics of the mission,” it said.

But on Friday it did an about-face, with one of its senior officers denying any knowledge of the flight.