President Barack Obama said Friday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to “new channels of communication” to avoid misunderstandings between the two nations’ military forces in the Pacific.
The move comes amid rising tension in the South and East China Seas over China’s territorial claims and after U.S. officials this week accused a Chinese jet pilot of making a “dangerous” pass near a U.S. aircraft over the Yellow Sea.
“We agreed to new channels of communication to reduce the risk of miscalculations between our militaries,” Obama said at a news conference with Xi in the White House Rose Garden.
A White House fact sheet noted that the two sides had agreed to new annexes on air-to-air safety and crisis communications to previous agreements designed to build confidence between the two militaries, which operate in close quarters in the Asia Pacific region.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that a Chinese jet performed an “unsafe” maneuver in front of a U.S. reconnaissance plane last week approximately 80 miles east of the Shandong peninsula.
“One of the maneuvers conducted by the Chinese aircraft during this intercept was perceived as unsafe by the RC-135 air crew and at this point, right now, there’s no indication this was a near collision, but the report that came back was that the plane operated in an unsafe fashion,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.
The intercept follows a more dangerous maneuver last year when an armed Chinese fighter jet came within approximately 20 feet of a U.S. Navy P-8 aircraft, at one point rolling to its side to show the U.S. plane its weapons load, Pentagon officials said at the time.
Beijing has taken an increasingly aggressive posture in the South China Sea and disputes over territories in the East China Sea continue to cause tension between Beijing and its neighbors, many of which are close U.S. allies. In the South China Sea, China is building a series of man-made, militarized islands 600 miles off its coastline and then claiming the surrounding air and sea rights. In the East China Sea, China has claimed sovereignty over islands — some uninhabited — that Japan also claims.
