China’s unsafe interceptions of US military aircraft have dropped off, defense officials say

By Oren Liebermann, CNN

(CNN) — China’s unsafe interceptions of US military aircraft have dropped off amid signs relations with Beijing are improving, two US defense officials told CNN.

There had been a spike in what the US deemed dangerous incidents in October and the Pentagon publicly condemned China’s behavior. But in a sign military tensions could be easing, the officials told CNN that there have not been major incidents since.

The last interception occurred on October 24, the officials said, when a Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of a US B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea. US Indo-Pacific Command said the Chinese pilot flew in an “unsafe and unprofessional manner” while closing on the larger US aircraft with “uncontrolled excessive speed.”

The Defense Department had warned only days earlier that Chinese “coercive and risky” behavior was on the rise. According to the Pentagon, there were more than 180 incidents of such behavior over the previous two years, which was more than the entire previous decade.

Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, called it a “centralized campaign” to try to force a change in US operational activity in the region.

But in the two months since the unsafe intercept in late-October, the incidents have dropped off, even as the American officials says the Chinese military continues to operate in the South China Sea and the region.

In November, President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California, the first such meeting between the leaders of the two largest militaries in the world. Biden emerged from the four-hour meeting expressing confidence the fraught relationship would improve, calling the talks “some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had.”

One month later, the top US and Chinese generals held their first call in more than a year when Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. spoke with People’s Liberation Army of China Chief of the Joint Staff Department Gen. Liu Zhenli. The two discussed the need for “open and direct lines of communication,” according to a readout of the call from Brown’s office.

On Monday, Xi tweeted a congratulatory message to Biden for the New Year in which he said the two countries were “moving forward as a whole” despite having “gone through tough moments,” according to Chinese state news agency Xinhau.

However, the decline in aircraft interceptions has done little to diminish broader concerns about the growth in China’s military power and its expanding nuclear arsenal. The US believes China has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads, surpassing earlier projections, a major Pentagon report said in October. Beijing was also exploring the possibility of developing conventionally-armed long range missiles that could reach the United States as it modernized its military, according to the 2023 China Military Power Report, released just days before the last intercept.

Though Beijing appears to have stopped directing its military to intercept and disrupt US military aircraft, there have been a number of maritime incidents with the Philippines, a close US ally involved in an escalating dispute in the South China Sea. In mid-December, the Philippines accused China of sending its coast guard and maritime vessels to illegally harass and block Philippine ships from reaching the Ayungin Shoal, also known as Second Thomas Shoal, in the Spratly Islands chain. The incident was one of the latest between the two countries that has heightened regional tensions.

The US State Department warned China to “desist from its dangerous and destabilizing conduct” in which Chinese vessels showed disregard for “the safety and livelihoods of Filipinos, but also for international law.”

And there are no signs China will back down over the future of Taiwan, a major source of tension with the US.

Last week Xi claimed the “reunification” of Taiwan with China is “inevitable,” reiterating Beijing’s long-held stance on the self-ruled island democracy ahead of a crucial election there this month.

“The realization of the complete reunification with the motherland is an inevitable course of development, is righteous and what the people want. The motherland must and will be reunified,” Xi said in an address marking the 130th anniversary of People’s Republic of China founder Mao Zedong’s birth.

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