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Resumed US Spy Flights Meet Chinese Jets
The United States has dispatched three surveillance planes to spy on China since the April 1 plane collison incident, and each time they met chasing Chinese jet fighters, the Pentagon said.
In the last several weeks, the US military has conducted three surveillance missions about ``50 to 70 miles off the shores of China's east coast - and in each instance, Chinese fighters launched and observed the US aircraft," Pentagon sources said.
The Chinese shadowing fighters, however, stayed several miles away, considered a ``safe distance." An "intercept" is defined as coming within less than 5 miles.
The first surveillance mission, on May 7, involved an Air Force RC-135, and another RC-135 flew last week. Then the Navy launched an EP-3, similar to the one still being held on China's Hainan island where it crash-landed last month after colliding with a Chinese jet.
The fate of the stranded EP-3 remains unsettled.
It was damaged in the collision and landing, and cannot be flown out in its current condition. American civilian experts who examined it earlier this month said it can be repaired. Washington's latest proposal is to have some 15 workers sent in to repair the plane.
The operation would take 10 to 12 days, and a Russian jet would be chartered to fly in the workers and their equipment - to avoid the specter of U.S. military presence. But Chinese officials have said they would not allow the plane flown out under any conditions, and have not given any approval for repair work.
Whether Chinese Goverment's refusal to let it fly out is a reaction to the resumption of US surveillance flights is not known.
Others note the Chinese public would react strongly to allowing the plane to fly off Chinese territory.
The remaining option is to have workers sent in for several weeks to dismantle the aircraft and ship it out on a barge.
Source: chinadaily.com.cn
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