U.S., Chinese aircraft in ‘unsafe’ encounter over South China Sea

BEIJING — A Chinese early warning aircraft and a U.S. Navy patrol plane had an “unsafe” encounter over the South China Sea this week, the U.S. Pacific Command said Friday, in the first such incident known to have taken place under President Donald Trump’s administration.

The interaction between a Chinese KJ-200 and a U.S. Navy P-3C plane occurred Wednesday in international airspace, Pacific Command spokesman Robert Shuford said. He did not say what was unsafe about the encounter, although the term usually implies planes flew too close to one another.

Shuford said the U.S. plane was on a routine mission and operating according to international law. The Department of Defense and the Pacific Command “are always concerned about unsafe interactions with Chinese military forces,” he said.

The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. However, the website of the Communist Par t y newspaper Gl obal Times quoted an unidentified ministry official as saying that the Chinese pilot had responded in a “legal and professional manner.”

“We hope the U.S. side will focus on the relationship between the two countries and two militaries in their entiret y, adopt concrete measures and eliminate the root causes of accidental incidents between the two countries on sea and in the air,” the unidentified official was quoted as saying.

P h i l i p p i n e s D e f e n s e De p a r t ment s p o ke s man A r s e n i o A n d o l o n g a l s o expressed concern because the incident happened near Scarborough Shoal, which is within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone, though it is claimed by China, which seized it in 2012 after a tense standoff with Philippines vessels.

“We’re worried of possible miscalculation and it’s good to know that nothing untoward happened,” Andolong said. If such foreign aircraft venture into Philippines airspace, “we deserved to be told out of courtesy.”

S u c h i n c i d e n t s h a v e occurred occasionally over and within the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety. Although China says it respects freedom of navigation in the strategic ally vit al area, it objects to U.S. military activities there, especially the collection of signals intelligence by U.S. craft operating near the coast of its southern island province of Hainan, home to several military installations.

In recent years, the sides have signed a pair of agreements aimed at preventing such encounters from sparking an international crisis.