The US Provoking Us – China Warns

China’s government on Wednesday accused the United States of provocation. According to the report, Beijing said a U.S. plane spied on its military in the country’s north.

Zhao Lijian, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, stated that an Air Force U-2 spy plane entered the no-fly zone for live-fire exercises without authorization.

“This is a stark provocation; China has lodged a solemn protest with the U.S. about the issue,” Dpa quoted him as saying.

“It was an act of naked provocation, and China is resolutely opposed to it, and have already lodged stern representations with the US side.”

In a statement, the US military said a U-2 flight was conducted in the Indo-Pacific region and it was “within the accepted international rules and regulations governing aircraft flights.”

“Pacific Air Forces personnel will continue to fly and operate anywhere international law allows, at the time and tempo of our choosing,” the US military said in the statement.

In April 2001, an intercept of a US spy plane by a Chinese fighter jet resulted in a collision that killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing at a base on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.