A U.S. spy plane trespassed into a no-fly zone over China's live-fire military exercises, a representative for China's Ministry of National Defense says.
A U.S. U-2 surveillance plane "severely disrupted" regular People's Liberation Army training - further stirring friction between China and the U.S., the National Defense Ministry official said. The ministry said the action threatened to trigger a miscalculation of judgment that could have caused an accident, The Wall Street Journal reported.
China has often condemned U.S. reconnaissance activities while the U.S. has protested "dangerous" interceptions by China's fighter jets. These are regular occurrences but China making a public statement about them is not.
According to China officials, the U.S spy plane faced the danger of being mistakenly fired on when it flew into a previously identified military exercise restriction area.
The U.S. intrusion was a blatant act of provocation, Sr. Col. Wu Qian said in a statement. He accused the U.S. of breaking joint procedures on aerial and maritime security and other pertinent international rules.
As many as five U-2 spy planes have been shot down between 1962 and 1967 by China's military after encroaching into China's airspace, China's military observers said.
While China didn't disclose the actual location of the U-2 spy plane - which can fly at more than 70,000 feet - its military is currently conducting exercises in the Bohai Sea, South China Sea and the Yellow Sea. Those areas are under the People's Liberation Army's northern command's area of responsibility.
The U-2, which can fly at more than 800 kilometers an hour, was developed by U.S. military contractor and arms group Lockheed Martin in the 1950s.
In a statement, the U.S. military said the U-2 flew over the Indo-Pacific region and the plane was "within the established international regulations governing aircraft flights." U.S. officials said American air forces in the Pacific would continue to operate anywhere that international law authorized.
