Chinese state Xinhua media on Wednesday reported the presence of an American U-2 reconnaissance jet flight over northern China, calling it an act of "naked provocation". Chinese defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said: "The US action could easily have resulted in misjudgments and even accidents. The move was an obvious provocation. China firmly opposes such provocative actions and has lodged solemn representations with the US side."
In a statement, Reuters reported, 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 military said in the statement. The U-2 aircraft can fly at over 70,000 feet and carry out reconnaissance activity from afar and would not necessarily have had to enter a no-fly zone.
Tensions between the two countries, in recent months, have risen to new heights on what has always been a rocky road, as the ambitions of a rising superpower increasingly clash with those of the established one.
Election-year politics in the US are fanning the flames between already taut relations with China, as US President Donald Trump appears to be using friction with China to drum up support among his base. Whether or not he is re-elected in November, underlying differences will remain for the foreseeable future. If there is one issue that Democratic candidate Joe Biden and Trump agree on, it is the need for a hawkish stance on China. Trump has ratcheted up tensions to an extreme, blaming China for the coronavirus, embarking on trade wars and military build-ups in the South China Sea.
The US domestic tide is also turning, with polls showing that an increasing number of Americans are now harbouring increasingly negative views of China; a Pew poll put the number at 66 per cent. As the common parlance goes, the relation might just be at a point of no return.
