{"id":21940,"date":"2022-08-18T21:16:43","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T21:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/08\/18\/us-7th-fleet-commander-sees-increase-in-unsafe-intercepts-by-china\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:10:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:10:48","slug":"us-7th-fleet-commander-sees-increase-in-unsafe-intercepts-by-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/2022\/08\/18\/us-7th-fleet-commander-sees-increase-in-unsafe-intercepts-by-china\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. 7th Fleet commander sees increase in \u2018unsafe\u2019 intercepts by China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The commander of the U.S. Navy\u2019s 7th Fleet said unsafe Chinese intercepts of U.S. and allied aircraft have become more common during a press briefing in Singapore on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, who leads the strategically important fleet in the Indo-Pacific, said during the briefing that, while overall interactions remain \u201cprofessional,\u201d there has been an uptick in unsafe intercepts by Chinese aircraft in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While flying up to an aircraft and taking photos is considered a normal interaction in the air \u2014 and done by the U.S. military \u2014 Chinese aircraft have flown dangerously close to U.S. and allied aircraft. These interactions, according to Thomas, are way out of the norms for conduct between aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s things that are understood and the normal rules-based international order of how you professionally operate,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s things that are provocative, and it\u2019s the provocative nature of the intercepts that\u2019s got our attention and we\u2019re trying to understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Multiple instances of unsafe intercepts by Chinese aircraft have been reported in recent months. In July, news broke that a Chinese fighter jet unsafely intercepted a U.S. Special Operations C-130 cargo aircraft. The Defense Department did not comment on the exact actions taken by the Chinese jet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. allies have also been unsafely intercepted by Chinese aircraft. Since December 2021, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2022\/06\/08\/australia-and-canada-accuse-china-of-dangerous-air-intercepts-beijing-pushes-back\/\" target=\"_blank\">reports<\/a> indicate there have been more than two dozen unsafe interactions between Canadian and Chinese aircraft over international waters. Australia also reported a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2022\/06\/08\/australia-and-canada-accuse-china-of-dangerous-air-intercepts-beijing-pushes-back\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cdangerous manoeuvre\u201d<\/a> on May 26, in which a Chinese aircraft released chaff while flying directly in front of an Australian P-8. The chaff, meant to confuse an aircraft\u2019s radar system, entered the P-8\u2032s engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis reported increase in the air is obviously concerning because it\u2019s not a very forgiving environment if something goes wrong when you\u2019re flying in the air,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The increased frequency of these intercepts comes as tensions have risen over the status of Taiwan \u2014 and as China works to bolster its claim to almost the entirety of the South China Sea. Since House Speaker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/news\/2022\/08\/08\/china-extends-threatening-military-exercises-around-taiwan\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nancy Pelosi<\/a>\u2019s visit to Taiwan, U.S.-China tensions have worsened with China launching an estimated 11 missiles around the waters of Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">China has also continued to fly sorties in Taiwan\u2019s air defense identification zone in an effort to pressure the smaller country\u2019s air force, which must scramble jets in response to each incursion. In 2021, Chinese warplanes crossed over Taiwan\u2019s ADIZ 969 times, more than double the number of incursions in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The South China Sea has also played been a flashpoint between the U.S. and China \u2014 and has been one of the reasons for such a response from the Chinese \u2014 Thomas said. Because of its claims in the sea, China has increased the size of islands or created new islands altogether, according to the Council on Foreign Relations\u2019 global conflict tracker. China has also constructed ports, airstrips and military installations, while further militarizing islands by deploying radar systems and cruise missiles to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With some of the world\u2019s busiest shipping lanes located in the sea, the U.S. and others have rejected these territorial claims by China. The U.S. has asserted the right to freedom of navigation, citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As China militarizes the sea or unsafely intercepts warplanes, the U.S. must not be deterred, Thomas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you don\u2019t challenge it, the problem is that it\u2019ll become the norm,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t challenge it, and if people just accept it, then all sudden people can make claims like that the entire South China Sea is their territorial sea&#8230;It\u2019s so important we contest these types of things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;It\u2019s the provocative nature of the intercepts that\u2019s got our attention, and we\u2019re trying to understand it,\u201d said Vice Adm. Karl Thomas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":48131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":12,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,93,12,25],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3305],"class_list":["post-21940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"IQV5ZLXLPZBXJLJCG65THVEY7U","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2022\/08\/18\/us-7th-fleet-commander-sees-increase-in-unsafe-intercepts-by-china\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>U.S. 7th Fleet commander sees increase in \u2018unsafe\u2019 intercepts by China - Marine Corps Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;It\u2019s the provocative nature of the intercepts that\u2019s got our attention, and we\u2019re trying to understand it,\u201d said Vice Adm. 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