• Diplomacy The spy balloon crisis: a miscalculation by China?

Several aerial incidents between Chinese and U.S. military aircraft over the South China Sea have heightened tension between the two superpowers, whose relations are strained by differences over Taiwan and the detection of an alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down after flying over the United States earlier this year.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that the pilot of a Chinese fighter jet made an "unnecessarily aggressive maneuver" on Friday, May 26, near a U.S. surveillance plane flying over the South China Sea.

"The Chinese pilot made a dangerous maneuver by getting too close to the plane," Blinken insisted Wednesday. "And in recent months there have been similar actions not only with us but with other countries," he added.

A video made public shows a Chinese fighter jet passing in front of the U.S. aircraft, which is shaken by turbulence. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) said a Chinese plane "flew directly ahead," less than 120 meters from a U.S. RC-135, leaving it at the mercy of a series of turbulences.

"The RC-135 was conducting safe and routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace, in accordance with international law," the U.S. military said.

For its part, the Chinese government denounced on Wednesday a "provocation" by the United States, after an incident last week between a Chinese fighter and a US military surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea.

"A U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft deliberately broke into our training area," Chinese military spokesman Zhang Nandong said in a statement, adding that Beijing had to send planes in response to track and monitor the U.S. aircraft.

"These provocative and dangerous maneuvers are the source of maritime security problems," said Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, urging the United States to "immediately cease these dangerous provocations."

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