crew aboard a P-8 Poseidon plane captured a tense radio exchange between the US aircraft and Chinese forces in the area.
“This is the Chinese navy... This is the Chinese navy... Please go away... to avoid misunderstanding,” a voice can be heard telling the Americans.
The Chinese navy issued eight such warnings during the P-8’s flight near the Fiery Cross Reef, one of the sites of Beijing’s massive land reclamation effort, CNN reported.
American pilots replied in each case that they were flying through “international airspace”.
Journalists are rarely allowed to fly in a sophisticated P-8 spy plane, much less permitted to film inside the cockpit, as the CNN crew was. The Chinese warnings to the US aircraft are typical and occur frequently, a navy official told AFP.
“It’s not uncommon,” the official said, adding that the Chinese sometimes send military aircraft to visually identify American planes in the area.
China’s Global Times newspaper said in an editorial that the access given to CNN showed the US was “trying to sensationalise China’s reclamation activities on some reefs and islets in the South China Sea in a bid to impose more pressure on China”.
“Washington is purposefully raising tensions with China, a move that has created a higher risk of a physical confrontation between both sides,” it added.
Earlier, Beijing said it had “indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha islands and adjacent waters”, using its name for the Spratly islands.
“We hope that relevant countries can respect China’s sovereignty in the South China Sea, avoid taking actions that may escalate or complicate the matters, and contribute to regional peace and stability,” Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.
With Beijing pursuing land reclamation at an unprecedented pace, a US naval commander has accused China of building a “great wall of sand” in the South China Sea to bolster its territorial claims.