The US has seen more instances of “coercive and risky” behavior from Chinese pilots against US aircraft in the last two years over the East and South China Seas than in the entire decade before that, the Pentagon’s top official in charge of security in the Indo-Pacific said on Tuesday.
“Since the fall of 2021, we have seen more than 180 such incidents,” said Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs.
To underscore the pattern, the Pentagon released previously nonpublic photos and videos of Chinese fighter jets intercepting US aircraft flying in international airspace.
The images, which date back to January 2022, show Chinese fighter jets getting dangerously close to US military jets in international airspace in an attempt to “intimidate” them, the Pentagon said in a statement about the incidents. Some of the Chinese fighter jets came within 20 feet of the US planes, the videos show.
“It’s a centralized and concerted campaign to perform these risky behaviors in order to coerce a change in lawful US operational activity,” Ratner added.
One photo from August 10 depicts a Chinese fighter jet closing in on a US jet, which had to perform “defense procedures” to avoid the Chinese plane that came within 50 feet and then “barrel-rolled” under the US plane, the Pentagon said.

The photos and videos also show the Chinese jets releasing objects and projectiles, including flares.