Communist China has increased the number of hostile intercepts of U.S. aircraft by more than five times in the past two years, according to the Pentagon. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military wing has aggressively intercepted more than 180 U.S. aircraft over the last two years, said Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner. That number is more than all the intercepts during the previous decade combined. Mr. Ratner said that China’s “coercive and risky operational behavior” in the Indo-Pacific risked open conflict between the two powers, which are also the world’s largest economies. “In many cases, this type of operational behavior can cause accidents. And accidents can lead to inadvertent conflict,” Mr. Ratner said during an Oct. 17 press briefing....Read more https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/china-aggressively-intercepted-us-military-aircraft-180-times-in-2-years-dod-5511873