China’s unsafe interceptions of US military aircraft have dropped off, defense officials say

CNN —

China’s unsafe interceptions of US military aircraft have dropped off amid signs relations with Beijing are improving, two US defense officials told CNN.

There had been a spike in what the US deemed dangerous incidents in October and the Pentagon publicly condemned China’s behavior. But in a sign military tensions could be easing, the officials told CNN that there have not been major incidents since.

The last interception occurred on October 24, the officials said, when a Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of a US B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea. US Indo-Pacific Command said the Chinese pilot flew in an “unsafe and unprofessional manner” while closing on the larger US aircraft with “uncontrolled excessive speed.”

The Defense Department had warned only days earlier that Chinese “coercive and risky” behavior was on the rise. According to the Pentagon, there were more than 180 incidents of such behavior over the previous two years, which was more than the entire previous decade.

Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, called it a “centralized campaign” to try to force a change in US operational activity in the region.

But in the two months since the unsafe intercept in late-October, the incidents have dropped off, even as the American officials says the Chinese military continues to operate in the South China Sea and the region.

In November, President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California, the first such meeting between the leaders of the two largest militaries in the world. Biden emerged from the four-hour meeting expressing confidence the fraught relationship would improve, calling the talks “some of the most constructive