The United States continues to provoke countries they consider foes by carrying out surveillance flights that threaten the sovereignty of many countries, such as Russia and Venezuela, and most recently China, whose government on Thursday denounced two U.S. jets posing a "serious threat" to their airspace.
The mainstream media, which by default sides with the U.S. and its Western allies, always reports these incidents by highlighting Washington's explanation, which always places the blame on the countries they provoke.
This is certainly the case in the most recent incident, which Reuters reported by saying two Chinese fighter jets carried out an "unsafe" interception of a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea.
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Reuters added that the Pentagon reported the incident — likely to increase tensions in and around the contested waterway — as having taken place in international airspace on Tuesday as the U.S. maritime patrol aircraft carried out "a routine U.S. patrol."
However, China immediately rebuked the reports, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei saying Thursday that the Pentagon's account was not true.
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"The two Chinese fighter jets tracked and monitored [the U.S. plane] in accordance with the law and regulations," he told the press.
The jets, he added, "continually kept a safe distance and did not take any dangerous actions."
The Chinese spokesperson explained that the incident took place near his country’s southern island province of Hainan, posing a "serious threat" to Chinese airspace.
The encounter comes a week after China scrambled fighter jets as a U.S. Navy ship sailed too close to the disputed reef in the South China Sea.
Washington has accused Beijing of militarizing the South China Sea after creating artificial islands, while Beijing in turn has criticized increased U.S. naval patrols and exercises in Asia.