Pentagon releases footage of aircraft intercepts by Chinese planes

The Pentagon has released footage of what it says are over 180 Chinese interceptions of US warplanes, which have occurred over the past 2 years. The footage was published ahead of the Pentagon’s upcoming annual report on the threat posed by China’s military might. Officials have called the Chinese flights risky and aggressive, but have not called them ‘unsafe’ – a specific term reserved for serious and deliberate incidents. ‘The bottom line is that in many cases, this type of operational behavior can cause active and dangerous accidents and can lead inadvertently to conflict,’ said Ely Ratner, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs.