Today there were dueling press releases from the US and China in which each country accused the other of unprofessional conduct in the South China Sea. This argument really began on Oct. 17, when the US DOD released declassified photos and videos showing Chinese jets intercepting US aircraft in international airspace. The point of this release was to highlight the PLA’s increasingly risky behavior in the South China Sea [emphasis added]:

The Department of Defense today released a collection of declassified images and videos depicting 15 recent cases of coercive and risky operational behavior by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) against U.S. aircraft operating lawfully in international airspace in the East and South China Sea regions. Ahead of the anticipated release of the congressionally-mandated 2023 Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China, or “China Military Power Report (CMPR),” the images and videos published by the Department underscore key findings in the forthcoming document about an increasing trend of coercive and risky operational behavior by the PLA since the fall of 2021.

What follows is a rundown of the dates of each incident along with a description and photos. Here are a few of the images:

September 21, 2023: A video newly released by the Department captures a PLA fighter jet conducting a coercive and risky intercept against a lawfully operating U.S. asset in the South China Sea, including by approaching a distance of just 50 feet from the U.S. plane. pic.twitter.com/SuNDbsFusH

— Duan Dang (@duandang) October 18, 2023

February 15, 2023: An image and video newly released by the Department capture a PLA fighter jet conducting a coercive and risky intercept against a lawfully operating U.S. asset in the South China Sea, including by approaching a distance of just 70 feet from the U.S. plane. pic.twitter.com/MnwHQggnmW

— Duan Dang (@duandang) October 18, 2023

January 11, 2023: A video newly released by the Department captures a PLA fighter jet in the course of conducting a coercive and risky intercept against a lawfully operating U.S. asset in the South China Sea, including by approaching a distance of just 30 ft from the U.S. plane. pic.twitter.com/in0OM5VA43

— Duan Dang (@duandang) October 18, 2023

Today, the Chinese Ministry of Defense held a press conference and a reporter asked an obviously staged question about these US complaints about Chinese fighter jets:

Reporter: We have noticed that the spokesperson of the Ministry of National Defense responded to the US hype about the “dangerous interception” of Chinese fighter jets. The US released some pictures and videos in the early stage, but we have not seen China disclose relevant evidence and videos. Does China have and provide them? Relevant information?

Wu Qian: To put it simply, of course you can master it. Please watch the big screen.

Then they showed this video:

The Chinese spokesman then added: “This video shows that the United States is the real provocateur, risk-taker, and troublemaker. We have many more similar videos, so I won’t show them one by one today due to time constraints.”

So the US released 15 photos/videos and China could only come up with one “due to time constraints.” But a bit later in the day, the US released yet another video we hadn’t seen before. This incident happened Tuesday of this week. [emphasis added]

On Oct. 24, 2023, a People’s Republic of China J-11 pilot executed an unsafe intercept of a U.S. Air Force B-52 aircraft, which was lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace. During the night time intercept, the PRC pilot flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner, demonstrated poor airmanship by closing with uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of collision. We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision.

Here’s the video:

#USINDOPACOM Statement on #PRC Unprofessional Intercept: "A People’s Republic of China J-11 pilot executed an unsafe intercept of a U.S. Air Force B-52 aircraft which was lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea…"

Read more⬇️https://t.co/UnCmnneAr7 pic.twitter.com/6k79Koah3V

— U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (@INDOPACOM) October 26, 2023

China has been using its jets to bully Taiwan and its ships to bully the Philippines. This behavior has escalated ever since Joe Biden took office. What we’re seeing now is that China has been trying to bully the US as well, we just didn’t hear about most of it at the time.