Beijing lodged “stern representations” with the United States on Tuesday and accused Washington of sending a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft to the so-called “no-fly zone” over a Chinese live-fire military drill in the Bohai Sea, the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea. China maintains that the People’s Liberation Army had declared the region a no-fly zone and called the U.S. flight “naked provocation,” after the spy planed entered the airspace.
The Bohai Sea is one of three areas where the PLA is conducting concurrent military exercises off the coast of mainland China from August 22 to 26, and Beijing has insisted the flight disrupted China’s “normal” military exercises and training activities.
The incident reportedly took place on August 25 above the Yellow Sea off China’s north coast. According to the Chinese tabloid Global Times, China’s military was holding military exercises in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea. Another source narrows it to waters between the cities of Qingdao and Lianyunggang to the south. This places it in the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s Northern Theater, which has its headquarters in Qingdao.
The Lockheed U2, which was nicknamed “Dragon Lady,” is a single-jet, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft that is capable of flying at an altitude of more than twenty-one thousand meters. It is also a completely unarmed aircraft and uses its ability to fly at an extremely high altitude as its primary defense, and even after more than six decades in service the U2 continues to fly high to provide that eye in the sky for the U.S. intelligence community.
The U-2 involved was likely part of the U.S. Air Force’s 5th Reconnaissance Squadron, operating out of Osan Air Base, South Korea. If Liaoning was conducting flight operations, a U-2 could use its SYERS2C 10-band multispectral camera to observe carrier takeoffs and landings, and even activities on the flight deck. SYERS2C uses visible light and various infrared bands to see through atmospheric conditions (like clouds and fog) where other cameras cannot.
The U2 is also no stranger to the region, as U2 flights had been conducted as far back as the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958 to determine if the People’s Republic of China was preparing to invade Taiwan. From 1958 to 1974, the reconnaissance aircraft was based in Taiwan and was even flown by the Republic of China’s Air Force Black Cat Squadron, which assessed the PRC’s nuclear capabilities. During that period, five of the aircraft were shot down and three of the pilots were killed while two more were captured. One of the shot-down aircraft—from January 1965—is now on display at the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution in Beijing.
The Chinese Ministry of Defense issued the following announcement on its website: “Today, the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane arbitrarily broke into the no-fly zone for live ammunition exercises in the northern theater of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, seriously disrupting China’s normal exercises and training activities, seriously violating the China-U.S. maritime and air safety code of conduct and related international practices, and could easily lead to misunderstandings. The conviction even caused accidents in the sea and air is a naked provocative action. China firmly opposes this and has lodged solemn representations with the United States. China requires the US to immediately stop such provocative actions and take concrete actions to maintain peace and stability in the region.”
The Pentagon’s 2019 annual report to Congress on Chinese military power states China’s Northern Fleet includes one aircraft carrier, four nuclear-powered submarines, 16 diesel electric submarines, 11 frigates, and eight landing ships. The carrier is Liaoning, China’s first true aircraft carrier, which is likely a training ship designed to get the country’s fledgeling carrier force up and running. The U.S. military is particularly interested in China’s carrier force, which currently consists of Liaoning, Shandong, and a third carrier, Type 003, which is under construction. Experts believe China will eventually build anywhere from four to six carriers.
China was simply irate that a U.S. spy plane was operating off the coast of China. U.S. ships and aircraft can easily operate just outside China’s borders, a result of having bases in nearby Japan and South Korea, while Chinese military forces rarely operate off the coast of the U.S. This is understandable to an extent, as the U.S. would likely be unhappy if Chinese planes were hanging out in the Gulf of Mexico or the Bering Sea.
Despite China’s growing military capabilities, it seems unlikely this imbalance will change any time soon. For now, the only proactive card Beijing can play is occasionally complaining about it.
Blasts From Past
While this week’s incident included a round of verbal salvos, it was nineteen years ago in April 2001, in which a U.S. Navy EP-3 spy plane collided with a Chinese J-10 fighter jet, which resulted in the death of the Chinese People’s Liberation Air Force (PLAAF) pilot was killed and the American plane was forced to make an emergency landing on the island of Hainan. The twenty-four U.S. aircrew members were held for eleven days until Washington was forced to apologize for the incident.
In 2014, a Chinese fighter buzzed a P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol plane, coming within 20 feet of the larger plane and causing the Pentagon to complain about the Chinese fighter’s “unsafe” flying. In 2018, the guided missile destroyer USS Decatur almost collided with a Chinese Luyang-class destroyer after the Chinese ship closed to within a stone’s throw of the American ship.