CHINA DAILY: Unacceptable for US to spy on China’s military drills
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The entry of a US Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane into a no-fly zone China announced for live-fire military drills being conducted by the Northern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Tuesday is anything but acceptable rule-based behaviour. China has more than enough reason to lodge stern representations with the US.
It is normal practice for a country to announce in advance a no-fly zone when conducting live-fire military drills, and entry into such a zone will naturally be considered a violation of safety norms and thus a provocative act. As such, what the US did is a deliberate act aimed at interfering with China’s military drills.
As US secretary of Defence Mark Esper wrote in an article published in The Wall Street Journal ahead of his trip to Palau, Guam and Hawaii this week, the US is willing to do all it can to maintain its military advantage.
China is entitled to develop a strong military, which it has repeatedly affirmed is to safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests. The unwarranted speculation of the US about the motivations for the PLA’s modernisation drive are nothing but attempts to portray China as an aggressor so as to drive a wedge between it and other countries in Asia.
As well as collecting as much intelligence as possible about the PLA’s military capabilities, the US incursion into the no-fly zone was intended to highlight the drills and reinforce this false perception that China’s military is a threat. But sending a U-2 reconnaissance plane into the no-fly zone China announced in advance was not only presumptuous, it was also potentially risky.
The tragic collision between a Chinese military jet and US Navy EP-3 Lockheed reconnaissance plane in April 2001 is a lesson Washington and the Pentagon should have learnt. They must have forgotten the apologies they had to make for that fatal coming together.
Being the world’s sole superpower and maintaining that status get the better of the rationality of US politicians and its military authorities, who, thanks to their corresponding arrogance, lack any respect for rules, conventions and international norms.
The fact that it has long bullied the world has made the US paranoid that should it not be able to bully another, it will end up being bullied itself. /Beijing, August 26
China Daily
It is normal practice for a country to announce in advance a no-fly zone when conducting live-fire military drills, and entry into such a zone will naturally be considered a violation of safety norms and thus a provocative act. As such, what the US did is a deliberate act aimed at interfering with China’s military drills.
As US secretary of Defence Mark Esper wrote in an article published in The Wall Street Journal ahead of his trip to Palau, Guam and Hawaii this week, the US is willing to do all it can to maintain its military advantage.
China is entitled to develop a strong military, which it has repeatedly affirmed is to safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests. The unwarranted speculation of the US about the motivations for the PLA’s modernisation drive are nothing but attempts to portray China as an aggressor so as to drive a wedge between it and other countries in Asia.
As well as collecting as much intelligence as possible about the PLA’s military capabilities, the US incursion into the no-fly zone was intended to highlight the drills and reinforce this false perception that China’s military is a threat. But sending a U-2 reconnaissance plane into the no-fly zone China announced in advance was not only presumptuous, it was also potentially risky.
The tragic collision between a Chinese military jet and US Navy EP-3 Lockheed reconnaissance plane in April 2001 is a lesson Washington and the Pentagon should have learnt. They must have forgotten the apologies they had to make for that fatal coming together.
Being the world’s sole superpower and maintaining that status get the better of the rationality of US politicians and its military authorities, who, thanks to their corresponding arrogance, lack any respect for rules, conventions and international norms.
The fact that it has long bullied the world has made the US paranoid that should it not be able to bully another, it will end up being bullied itself. /Beijing, August 26
China Daily