Unsafe South Chinese Sea Interception --Madeleine Norton, 4th period

On March 19th, another unsafe interception between the United States and China took place over the South Chinese Sea. The issue arose when two J-11 tactical aircrafts flew approximately 50 feet between a U.S. EP-3 reconnaissance airplane, giving no warning (as is usual with planes flying so close to one another) and making no returning replies. Since the ordeal has been somewhat suspicious, authorities are looking into the issue and what might have to be done about it.

Previously, China had warned America of coming too close to the man-made island's boundaries, or interfering with the process of its construction (as it is still underway). However, our country considers it an unauthorized and illegitimate territory and continues to fly nearby. This could very well be a warning threat from the Chinese about getting too close to rising their tempers on the issue, and it might be best of America chooses to have a conference to discuss the issue peacefully as opposed to letting tensions grow through misunderstanding. There is good reason for the U.S. to fear, however, as the territory is dangerously close to other nations, and with the building of a military base so close to nations outside of the Chinese border it could be a recipe for disaster. Or else, a hint that something else, bigger than we expect, might be coming.
Jamie Crawford of CNN reported from key source (Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations) about how "This is potentially part of a disturbing trend line as the Chinese try to push their military envelope into greater parts of the sea surrounding their mainland." He also stated due to recent occurrences like these involving Chinese and Russian militaries, it's important that overreaction and fear not get the better of us. "What the Chinese and the Russians are trying to do is to provoke us into some kind of action that will feed into their domestic narratives, both in China and in Russia."

This issue can be synthesized with American interference with the Berlin Wall (when we dropped first-aid, food, and clothing to the Germans located on the Eastern side of the Wall, even though it was threatened we should cease) or the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement, which Captain Jeff Davis of the pentagon described as "(making) progress reducing risk between our operational forces and those of the People's Republic of China by improved dialogue at multiple levels."

Article link here: http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/18/politics/pentagon-south-china-sea-intercept/index.html