User:RightCowLeftCoast/Sandbox/August 2014 Hainan Island intercept

Background
The People's Republic of China is one of three nations which have attempted to restrict foreign military activity in the waters of their claimed Exclusive Economic Zone; in an article in the journal of International Law Studies Raul Pedrozo wrote that there was no basis in customary law or past conventions allowing for such restrictions. There have been numerous events of the People's Republic of China enforcing their restrictions of activities within their claimed Exclusive Economic Zone. One such event was the Hainan Island incident, which was a collision, resulting in an American plane to conduct a emergency landing, and a People's Republic of China pilot was killed. Other such similar events, not involving United States aircraft involved the USNS Impeccable and the USS Cowpens. Earlier in 2014, a People's Liberation Army ship operated off Hawaii conducting surveillance during the RIMPAC exercise. Just the month prior to the August 2014 incident, People's Republic of China vessels were involved in multiple collisions with Vietnamese vessels, with each nation claiming the other nation caused them.

Incident
On 19 August 2014, a People's Republic of China J-11, came within 30 feet of a P-8, assigned to VP-5, while both aircraft were 135 miles east of Hainan Island. The aircraft was armed, flew past the nose of the aircraft at a right angle, and did a barrel roll near the aircraft. The event involved three separate passes of the American aircraft by the People's Republic of China aircraft, and occurred over international airspace in the South China Sea. A Pentagon spokesperson said that the aircraft comes from the same unit as the one who made close intercepts in March, April, and May 2014.

Reactions
Initially, the United States did not publicize the incident, allowing for a private apology; no apology was received after three days. The United States sent a diplomatic note to China noting a pattern of behavior by the commander of the Chinese fighter group; that the U.S. aircraft on routine missions, had been intercepted three different times since March 2014. It was the belief of the United States that all these aircraft which made the intercepts originated from the same People's Liberation Army Navy air base; The United States believes that the aircraft were from the 8th Fighter Division of the People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force. The People's Republic of China responded by stating that the claims were "totally groundless", and said the root of the event is U.S. surveillance of China; the United States responded by saying it will continue to operate in international airspace and waters. Following this incident China and the United States began discussions on conduct. The resulting agreement was made during APEC China 2014, and was named "Ruled of Behavior for the Safety of Air and Maritime Encounters." However, it has been written that the agreement is "not considered legally binding."

Aftermath
The incident was called a "direct confrontation" by the Rand Corporation between the two nations; Rand Corporation also speculated that how training was conducted by the PLANAF, may have been a factor in causing the incident. The Republic of China's Ministry of National Defense wrote of the incident, that it is one of "significance that should not be overlooked." In a 2016 book, written by Kai He, the event was referred to as the "P-8 incident". The event is detailed in the 2017 book, Countering Coercion in Maritime Asia, where it was seen as growing Chinese assertiveness.

In September 2015, there was a reported "unsafe" intercept of a RC-135 by Chinese aircraft. Due to the two events, Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr. requested helmet video cameras, such as GoPros, to be equipped to record the interactions with People's Republic of China aircraft; Harris in reference to the August 2014 incident called it "a very dangerous event,".

Following the intercept of the RC-135 intercept, the two nations agreed to the "Annex of the Rules of Behavior for Air-to-Air Encounters."; however American Senator John McCain criticized the timing of the September 2015 intercept, and that the numerous events "raises further questions about China's intentions". In May 2016, the United States reported of an "unsafe" intercept by Chinese aircraft of a EP-3E, coming to within 50 feet of the EP-3E. This event was called "reminiscent" to the August 2014 intercept by Bloomberg. People's Republic of China denied that the intercept was "unsafe", and called for the end of U.S. flights in what it called "Chinese coastal waters"; the intercept in 2016 came days before the 42nd G7 summit. Intercepts continued well into 2017, which included an interecept of a P-3C, by a KJ-200, in February 2017. Due to the increase of intercepts by Chinese aircraft of American surveillance aircraft, the aircraft have been equipped with photography equipment for documenting the intercepts.

These events were seen by the Pentagon as continued efforts by China to challenge United States dominance.