China protests US spy plane watching drills
HONG KONG: China has lodged "stern representations" with the United States, accusing it of sending a US U-2 reconnaissance plane into a no-fly zone over Chinese live-fire military drills on Tuesday (Aug 25), further ratcheting up tensions between Beijing and Washington.
China has long denounced US surveillance activities, while the United States has complained of "unsafe" intercepts by Chinese aircraft. While such missions happen regularly, for China to talk about them publicly is unusual.
China's Defence Ministry said the U-2 flew without permission over a no-fly zone in the northern military region where live fire drills were taking place, "seriously interfering in normal exercise activities".
This could easily have caused a misunderstanding or misjudgement or an "unexpected incident", the ministry added.
"It was an act of naked provocation, and China is resolutely opposed to it, and have already lodged stern representations with the US side."
In a statement, the US military said a U-2 flight was conducted in the Indo-Pacific region and it was "within the accepted international rules and regulations governing aircraft flights."
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