A Chinese fighter jet aggressively intercepted a U.S. aircraft earlier in the month, risking the lives of its crew and escalating tensions between the two nations.
A J-16 fighter pilot “performed an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver” against a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance plane on May 26, according to a statement released by United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) on May 30.
Indo-Pacific Command released a video of the incident, in which the Chinese fighter pilot aggressively cuts across the nose of the U.S. aircraft, forcing it to fly through the smaller plane’s turbulence.
The move is part of a long-running pattern of Chinese military aggression in the international airspace of the South China Sea, through which the regime has attempted to force the militaries of several nations to cease monitoring the region….