News - World: The US military announced that a Chinese military plane came within 20 feet (6 meters) of an American air force reconnaissance aircraft and forced it to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision over the South China Sea last week.

The Pentagon said on Thursday that the close encounter followed what it called a recent trend of increasingly dangerous behavior by Chinese military jets, according to the Reuters news agency.

The US military said the incident involved a Chinese Navy J-11 fighter jet and a US air force Boeing RC-135 aircraft which is a fighter jet and reconnaissance plane. It took place on December 21.

“Americans are blatant about their spying on China, and it goes on all the time. And they're pushing across the board - they're messing around with Serbia, they're messing around in Syria, they're messing around with Iran, and they’re messing around with Belarus. It's looking like a World War,” New York-based journalist Don Debar told Press TV. 

The United States regularly carries out what it claims to be “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea, challenging restrictions on naval passage imposed by China and other claimants.

Beijing has repeatedly asserted that it does not impede freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and says the United States is deliberately provoking tensions there.

Washington routinely sends warships and warplanes to the South China Sea to assert what it terms its “right” to “freedom of navigation.” China's military often drives away US warships in the sea.

China claims the South China Sea in its entirety. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei have overlapping claims to parts of the waters. The United States, however, sides with Beijing’s rival claimants in the dispute.

China has always warned the US against military activities in the sea. Beijing says potential close military encounters between the air and naval forces of the two countries in the region may cause accidents.

Source: Press TV