By Jim Emerson, staff writer

China has been demanding the U.S. halt all reconnaissance flights over international waters near its boarder. China’s Defense Ministry told the Global Times newspaper “We demand that the U.S. respect China’s sovereignty and security interests, and take concrete measures to boost a healthy and stable development of military relations.” The only problem is that the US surveillance flights have been operating outside of China’s sovereign territory.

Tensions have increased after a pair of Chinese fighters attempted to intercept and American U-2 flying over the Taiwan Strait which is the waterway separating Taiwan from Mainland China. The U-2 was over international waters and not in China’s airspace. In an effort to halt future surveillance flights China scrambled two Su-27s to intercept the unarmed reconnaissance aircraft. During the intercept one of the Su-27s violated Taiwan’s airspace.

In ground controlled intercepts, as used by most oppressive regimes, the fighters wouldn’t be … Continue Reading:Obama’s weakness has emboldened China to violate Taiwan’s airspace for first time since 1999