The U.S. has conducted at least 2,000 espionage operations against China this year, a Chinese military expert has claimed.
“The objectives of these missions include Chinese-controlled islands and reefs in the South China Sea as well as the coastal area of the Chinese mainland,” said Cao Yanzhong, an analyst at the People’s Liberation Army Military Academy of Sciences.
Referring to the passage of US warships and planes into the disputed waters of the South China Sea, he said that “imminent espionage operations were aimed at China,” the South China Morning Post reported.
“The high frequency of such a discovery threatens China’s security and sovereignty and increases regional tensions, which will inevitably provoke strong opposition from China and undoubtedly increase the risk of arms use,” he added.
The military analyst spoke at the 10th Xiangshan Forum, an annual Chinese military conference held virtually this week.
In early July, a research institute came out with claims that the US monitors the disputed South China Sea “almost every day” in the first half of this year.
“AIS (Automatic Identification System) data reveals that the US has deployed all 5 of its ocean surveillance vessels in the sensitive waters of the South China Sea almost every day, in the first half of 2021 The China Sea Investigation Initiative (SCSPI) report, based in Beijing, states in its biennial report.
In April, the SCSPI report noted that the US military’s imminent discovery of China in the South China Sea has seen a “high increase” in frequency, intensity and importance since 2009.
Frequent close observation by the US military is “always one of the three main obstacles to Sino-US military relations and has been increasingly serious and dangerous in the last two decades,” according to the SCSPI.
“Today, the United States operates up to 2,000 reconnaissance flights to the Yellow Sea, East Sea, and South China Sea each year,” the report said.
The South China Sea is claimed by China and several other countries in the region as ongoing U.S. naval operations in the Taiwan Strait, part of the disputed sea, have angered Beijing.
China’s claims are based on its “nine-dot line,” the purple line on official Chinese maps showing Beijing’s historic claims to the South China Sea.
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