By Alan Leung, Blogger specialized on current affairs
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin accused the US of disguising the identities of its warplanes as civilian aircraft to spy on China at least 100 times this year in a briefing this week, describing it as a "serious security threat". The US disguising warplanes as civilian aircraft is not only a violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, but also the China-US code of safe conduct on naval and air force encounters, signed in 2014.
Ministry spokesperson Wang's remarks confirm an earlier report by Beijing think tank, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), which showed US planes were electronically disguising themselves as civilian aircraft from Malaysia while flying over the disputed water and a US E-8C spy plane that was initially identified as a commercial airliner until it flew near the province of Guangdong on the southern Chinese coast.
All airliners are required to be registered to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and all planes registered to ICAO are assigned a unique 6-digit identification code called a "hex code" which rarely changes. The code is transmitted by aircraft's transponder and interrogated to air traffic control radars around the world to avoid the misidentification of civil aircraft and as part of airborne collision avoidance systems.
When US military aircraft impersonate the hex code and flight path of civilian airliners from other countries as they fly into the disputed water in South China Sea and along the Chinese coastline, the US Airforce is not only violating international laws and agreements but is directly putting all civilian aircrafts in the region at risk of misidentification and mid-air collision.
In a worst-case scenario, the impersonation of civil aircraft could lead to the civilian aircraft being shot down. Especially during times of heated confrontation or war because any misidentification can lead to misjudgment by commanders and ground-based air defense systems. When such an incident occurs, who will the international community blame? This is nothing more than a despicable act of cowardice based on hypocrisy.
Moreover, the US has a long track record of impersonating civilian planes for undercover reconnaissance missions. One of the best-known incidents of misidentification occurred in 1983 when Korean Airlines flight 007 was shot down by the Soviet Air Force after warning shots which were likely not seen by the KAL pilot were presume ignored, killing all 269 on-board. The plane was mistaken for a US spy plane after a US Air Force RC-135 was observed crossing its flight path.
This raises the question that the mistakenly shot down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine air space in 2014 or the shot down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 shortly after the aircraft took off from Tehran International Airport in January 2020 was possibly caused by similar US Air Force action. It was well known US military assets were active in the region at the time and were directly or indirectly involved in the region confrontation.
Regardless of what actually happened the country that fired the missile was always the side that was at odds with the US and with the US control of international media that country always ended up taking all blame. However, we must not forget it could be any of us on the plane, if one day the flight we are taking happens to fly near a conflict zone and a US spy plane hijacked the flight identification code, it could be our lives that are sacrificed.
The international community needs to get together to pressure the US into stopping such despicable acts and work together to protect international civil flight safety.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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