US planes had over 180 dangerous encounters with Chinese aircraft since 2021: Pentagon

US military aircraft have had over 180 dangerous mid-air encounters with Chinese warplanes since 2021 — representing more instances than in the preceding two decades, the Pentagon revealed Tuesday. 

The encounters in the past two years between American planes in the East and South China Seas and fighter jets belonging to China’s People’s Liberation Army have been described by a Pentagon official as a “centralized and concerted campaign” by China “ to coerce a change in lawful US operational activity” through “risky behaviors.” 

“That’s nearly 200 cases where PLA operators have performed reckless maneuvers or discharged chaff or shot off flares or approached too rapidly or too close to US aircraft,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Dr. Ely Ratner said at a press conference Tuesday. 

“All as part of trying to interfere with the ability of US forces to operate safely in places where we and every country in the world have every right to be under international law,” said Ratner.

Ratner noted that the number of “coercive and risky PLA intercepts” ballooned to nearly 300 cases since 2021 when factoring in Chinese fighter jet encounters with US ally and partner aircraft. 

The senior Pentagon official warned that the dangerous Chinese intercepts “put lives at risk – the lives of our service members, the lives of our allies and partners service members, and even the lives of PLA operators.” 

A trove of declassified images and video released by the Department of Defense Tuesday show dozens of these recent, high-speed aerial encounters. 

In one video, a May 25 encounter, a PLA fighter jet is seen sweeping across the front of a US plane and causing the American plane to shake as it flies through the PLA jet’s wake turbulence.

In a June 2022 incident, video shows a PLA fighter jet coming within 40 feet of a US plane over the South China Sea and repeatedly flying above and below the US aircraft and “flashing its weapons,” according to the Pentagon. 

“After the US operator radioed the PLA fighter jet, the PLA pilot responded using explicit language, including an expletive,” the Pentagon notes. 

“The bottom line is that in many cases, this type of operational behavior can cause accidents and dangerous accidents can lead to inadvertent conflict,” Ratner said, explaining that the encounters can last for more than 15 minutes, occur at hundreds of miles per hour, and that the armed Chinese jets sometimes come within 20 feet of US and ally planes. 

Ratner also expressed concern that the “disturbing” behavior continues to occur “at a time when the [People’s Republic of China” has declined our invitations to open lines of military to military communication at the senior most levels.” 

The lack of communication stems from the US military’s shoot down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon in February off the South Carolina coast, after the craft had flown across the entire continental US, including over sensitive US military installations. 

Navy Adm. John C. Aquilino, the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, explained Tuesday that “intercepts happen every day around the world,” but when China conducts them against US planes, they are different.   

“The vast majority are conducted safely and without incident and there’s no reasons for the intercepts with the PRC in the Indo Pacific region to be any different,” Aquilino said. 

“As the Joint Force Commander, I’m most concerned about the potential for accidents,” he added. 

Ratner emphasized that the US will not change its approach to flying over the East and South China Seas despite the PLA’s actions. 

“The United States will not be deterred or coerced,” Ratner said. “We will continue to fly, sail and operate safely and responsibly wherever international law allows. Our forces have helped sustain peace and stability in the Indo Pacific for decades. And we will continue to do so every day.”