A PRC fighter pilot aggressively maneuvered around a US Air Force RC-135 aircraft, the US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) said in a press release on Tuesday.
USINDOPACOM released a video of the incident, saying that last Friday, a PRC pilot “flew directly into the nose of the RC-135, forcing the US plane to fly through its wake turbulence.”
“The RC-135 was conducting safe and routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace, in accordance with international law,” USINDOPACOM continued.
“The United States will continue to fly, navigate and operate, safely and responsibly, where international law allows, and the United States Joint Indo-Pacific Force will continue to fly in international airspace with due regard for the safety of all ships and aircraft under international law,” he added.
“We hope that all countries in the Indo-Pacific region will use international airspace safely and in accordance with international law,” he concluded.
A senior US defense official said the Joe Biden administration believes the incident is part of a coordinated campaign of harassment organized by Chinese leaders.
“We don’t think it’s being done by pilots who are operating independently,” the official said, according to ABC News. “We think it’s part of a larger pattern that we’re seeing in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and elsewhere.”
The move comes after Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro revealed that the Navy was one of the victims of a cyber attack by a Chinese government hacking group that Microsoft discovered in early 2023.
According to CNBC, del Toro said the Navy “has been impacted” by the cyberattacks that Microsoft says also involved the installation of malicious computer code on telecommunications systems on Guam and other locations in the United States.
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