According to multiple US media outlets, a Chinese J-11 fighter jet with four air-to-air missiles intercepted an American P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft over the South China Sea on February 24.
The incident occurred while the US media journalists were aboard an American aircraft on a surveillance mission in the South China Sea. The reports said that the US P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft was shadowed by a Chinese J-11 fighter jet for well over an hour.
The American military aircraft first received a warning from a Chinese ground station. “American aircraft, this is the PLA air force. You are approaching Chinese airspace. Keep a safe distance, or you will be intercepted,” said the Chinese ground station.
Soon after, a Chinese J-11 fighter jet positioned itself barely 500 feet off the port side of the US aircraft to intercept it. The Chinese fighter jet was so close that the US journalists could see the red star on the tail fins of the J-11 and the weapons the aircraft was carrying.
A few dozen miles north of the Paracel Islands—which China and Vietnam both claim—was where the P-8 and the Chinese jet aircraft came into contact. China has built military installations on a few of the islands.
