China Accuses United States of Covert Air Surveillance

U.S. military surveillance compounds the growing tensions between the U.S. and China on multiple fronts (Wikimedia Commons).

Amidst growing tensions in the South China Sea, the Chinese government has accused the United States of disguising spy planes as Malaysian civilian aircraft for surveillance. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wengbin claimed last week that the United States has used civilian codes to spy on China at least a hundred times throughout the year.

“We urge the US to immediately stop such dangerous provocations, to avoid accidents from happening in the sea and air,” Wang said.

Wang’s accusation corroborates a report by the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), a Beijing ThinkTank which tweeted its initial report that a U.S. fighter had impersonated a civilian aircraft on September 8. The SCSPI further claimed that between September 8 and 10, several U.S. spy planes took off from Okinawa and Guam and disappeared, reappearing with Malaysian flight codes as they surveilled the Parcel Islands, the Taiwan Strait and the Yellow Sea, all heavily contested territories. 

The exchange between the U.S. and China reflects decades of disputes in the South China Sea. Since the 1970s, nations in the Indo-Pacific region have laid significant claims to the resource rich area, which has enormous untapped reserves of natural gas and oil. China has laid extensive claims in the South China Sea to assure access to these resources. The country argues that under international law, it alone has authority over its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), barring other countries from engaging in military activities within it. Meanwhile, the U.S. and other Indo-Pacific claimants have argued that large parts of China’s claim do not conform with the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and, as such, they need not notify China of their passage through or military activities within the contested area.

The U.S.’s military exercises in the South China Sea, which ramped up between 2016 and 2018, demonstrate its vested interest in protecting freedom of navigation in the territorial waters. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has identified the South China Sea as one of the most important trade routes in the world. Washington’s surveillance activities and intelligence gathering reinforces its role as a major power in the strategic region.

According to Hong Kong military commentator Song Zhongping, a U.S. spy plane, if disguised as a Malaysian civilian aircraft, could approach the Chinese coastline and civilian and military targets while escaping the notice of the Chinese Air Force.

“They pretended to be Malaysian because that is a South China Sea nation and has relatively good relations with China, so it would be less likely to raise a flag,” Song said.

Beijing’s claim of U.S. surveillance may increase tensions in what has already emerged as a central zone of conflict in the twenty-first century. This development, along with the U.S.’s increased efforts to court the Philippines as an ally, reflects the dangerous possibility of imminent military escalation in the region.

According to Song, the U.S.’s surveillance tactics directly violate the International Civil Aviation treaty and a 2014 U.S.-China naval and air force treaty.

If the U.S.’s spying and efforts to maintain freedom of navigation continue to interfere with China’s efforts to establish dominance in territory that it considers its own, then there exists very real potential that these tensions will erupt into open hostilities.