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Excerpt from news.google.com
China’s alleged intimidation of a Philippine Air Force (PAF) aircraft on a routine patrol over a disputed South China Sea shoal has raised questions over its sincerity to deescalate tension in the waterway, officials and analysts said Monday.
On Aug. 8, two Chinese Air Force aircraft allegedly dropped flares in the path of the Philippine Air Force NC-212i plane over Scarborough Shoal, forcing it to turn around for the safety of its pilots and crew. The NC-212i is a light-lift, fixed-wing propeller airplane used by Manila to patrol its vast coastline.
The Chinese jets flew at a “very close distance” to the Philippine plane and “put the lives of our pilots in real risk and danger,” the Associated Press quoted a Manila security official as saying. Another security officer told the AP that the Chinese fighter jets fired at least eight flares at the Philippine aircraft.
