Chinese jets buzz US ‘sniffer’ aircraft in ‘unprofessional’ move

Two Chinese SU-30 fighter jets buzzed an American radiation-detecting aircraft in what the US air force described as an “unprofessional” manoeuvre over the Yellow Sea, the latest in a series of incidents in contested waters off China’s coastline.

The Chinese aircraft flew within 150 feet of the WC-135, an aircraft that gathers information on radiation to help detect nuclear explosions. CNN reported that one of the fighters flew upside down directly over the American plane.

"The interaction was considered unprofessional due to the manoeuvres of the Chinese pilots and the speed," Lieutenant Colonel Lori Hodge, spokeswoman for Pacific Air Forces Command in Honolulu, told Bloomberg.

The Yellow Sea is the northern part of the East China Sea, which lies between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula.

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She said the US aircraft had been carrying out a routine mission at the time and was following international law.

Both the US and China are loosely co-operating on ways to end North Korea’s atomic weapons programme and have said they suspect a sixth nuclear test is imminent.

The aerial standoff came shortly after China and Southeast Asian countries in the ASEAN group agreed to a framework for a long-debated code of conduct for disputed territories in the South China Sea.

The incident is the latest of encounters over territories China that insists are its own, claims the US opposes.

In February, the US Pacific Command reported an "unsafe" encounter between a US Navy P-3 spy plane and a Chinese surveillance plane near the disputed Scarborough Shoal.

On Thursday, Japan scrambled fighter jets after four Chinese coast guard vessels entered what Japan considers its territorial waters near disputed East China Sea islets and a drone-like object flew near one ship.

Meanwhile, in the Chinese city of Guiyang, China and the members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed a framework document on the South China Sea.

On Chinese state TV, the document was welcomed by vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin, who issued a barely veiled warning to the US not to interfere.

“We hope that our consultations on the code are not subject to any outside interference,” Mr Liu said.

Many ASEAN members, including Vietnam and the Philippines, are worried about China's militarisation of the South China Sea, including the construction of missile batteries and military runways on man-made islands.

China claims nearly the entire waterway, which has brought it into conflict with neighbours Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan.

They had been working on agreeing a framework document ahead of the upcoming China-ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in July. This year is the 15th anniversary of the commitment to draft it.