Why the Chinese Navy’s Target of a US Surveillance Aircraft With a Laser Isn’t Business As Usual
The geographic reach of risk-acceptant Chinese military behavior appears to be extending.
By Ankit Panda
February 29, 2020
As my colleague Franz-Stefan Gady discussed on Friday, a Poseidon P-8A maritime surveillance aircraft belonging to the U.S. Navy was targeted with what U.S. officials described as a “military grade†laser. The laser was directed against the U.S. aircraft by a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warship with the incident taking place in Pacific Ocean waters near Guam, outside of the United States’ exclusive economic zone. The specific location of the incident was some 610 kilometers west of Guam, in waters in the Philippine Sea.
The U.S. Navy has already addressed the irresponsible nature of the alleged conduct by the Chinese PLAN crew. “The P-8A was operating in international airspace in accordance with international rules and regulations,†the U.S. Navy said in a statement last Thursday. The Navy pointed out that the conduct was inconsistent with China’s agreement to the 2014 Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, or CUES, which was agreed at that year’s Western Pacific Naval Symposium.
https://thediplomat.com/2020/02/why-the-chinese-navys-target-of-a-us-surveillance-aircraft-with-a-laser-isnt-business-as-usual/
