China says it tailed a US spy plane through the sensitive Taiwan Strait

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Chinese fighter jets chased a US military plane through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the Chinese military said.

The US aircraft was a P-8A Poseidon patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, which was capable of long-range anti-submarine warfare, according to a statement from the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command.

Chinese forces “organized fighter jets to track and monitor the flight of the US planes and handled it in accordance with the law,” said Li Xi, a senior colonel and spokesman for the command.

“The Theater Command forces remain on high alert at all times and will resolutely protect national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability,” he added.

The US Navy has not yet commented on the incident.

China claims the autonomous island of Taiwan as its own territory and is angry about patrols by other countries in the waters that separate it from the island.

On Friday, Germany sailed through the Taiwan Strait with two warships in the first passage through the disputed waters in more than two decades, drawing criticism from Beijing.

In 2001, a U.S. reconnaissance plane and a Chinese Navy fighter jet collided in midair near China’s Hainan island province, killing the Chinese pilot. The U.S. said the plane was in international airspace and the accident was the result of reckless flying by the Chinese side.