US: China More Aggressive in Aircraft Intercepts

General Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said China has become more aggressive in intercepting military aircraft with unsafe aerial maneuvers over the past five years.

Milley said, in comments reported by the British newspaper, the Financial Times, that China was conducting "dangerous interception" against US military aircraft and ships, and also targeted Canada, Australia, Japan, and other US partners.

“The number of Chinese intercepts at sea and in the air has increased significantly over five years,” Milley added.

Milley is currently visiting the Indo-Pacific region to support US alliances with countries in the region and act as a counterweight to China.

The Chinese military has become “noticeably more aggressive in this particular region”, he said.

Milley declined to provide specific numbers on the total number of such incidents but said the volume of unsafe intercepts, such as when a Chinese fighter jet approached a US plane, rose "in an equal proportion", according to the newspaper.

Beijing warned the US after Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, would next month visited Taiwan, a country over which China claims sovereignty, according to the Financial Times.