Australian helicopter forced to take evasive action after Chinese fighter detonates flares

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Australian helicopter forced to take evasive action after Chinese fighter detonates flares
abc.net.au

An Australian pilot was forced to take evasive action after a Chinese military jet detonated flares close to a Navy helicopter that was operating in international waters near South Korea.

The Defence Department has described the actions of the J-10 Chinese Air Force plane as "unsafe and unprofessional" following the incident which took place in the Yellow Sea over the weekend.

On Saturday a MH-60R Seahawk which had launched from HMAS Hobart was intercepted by the People's Liberation Army-Air Force (PLA-AF) as it was taking part in a UN mission to enforce sanctions against North Korea.

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China's navy is by no means advanced enough to project power halfway across the globe. It's not been designed to do so, either: most of China's navy is designed to repel a naval invasion near Chinese waters.

It's considered breaking news and a gross overstep when China flies over an arbitrary EEZ line in the Taiwan Strait to enter another EEZ for even a second. That should tell you all you need to know about China's confidence in its own capabilities.

I mean there was for example this incident, and I don't remember it raising many eyebrows outside military news.

The US Coast Guard recently released images of a fleet of four ships of China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) sailing near a US Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) near Alaska's Aleutian Islands

I think the article is confused