Top Pentagon Official: China’s Air Actions Are ‘Dangerous and Destabilizing’
March 2, 2023 | By Christopher Prawdzik
China’s growing capabilities and recent boldness in the air domain represent “dangerous and destabilizing” behavior patterns, the Pentagon’s top official on the Indo-Pacific said March 2.
Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, discussed how China continues to prod the U.S. and challenge stability in region, even as the U.S. executes a number of cooperation initiatives, as part of a Hudson Institute forum.
“We are seeing a [People’s Liberation Army] that is growing more capable but … growing also more willing to take risk, more willing to use the military instrument of power in a way that we haven’t seen in previous eras,” Ratner said.
This has manifested itself in many recent air encounters between China and the U.S. and its allies, who were operating lawfully in international airspace. Ratner noted an encounter where an Australian aircraft flew through chaff released by a PLA fighter and another incident where the PLA aircraft harassed a Canadian aircraft.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/top-pentagon-official-chinas-air-actions-are-dangerous-and-destabilizing/
