Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked about a June 29 incident in which two Chinese Sukhoi-27 fighters briefly crossed a line in the center of the Taiwan Strait that is considered an unofficial air boundary between both countries.
Asian media reported the Chinese jets were attempting to intercept a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance plane.
"We won't be deterred from flying in international airspace," Mullen told reporters in Washington in response.
I saw other reports that said the Taiwanese scrambled their older F-16s to intercept the Chinese, in turn. But no contact was made. (Ah, here it is.)
Since we aren't going anywhere, as Mullen stated, it certainly helps Taiwan's case for modernizing their air force that their older F-16s were the only friendly force standing between our U-2 and another EP-3 incident.
You'd think the Chinese would avoid giving the pro-sale factions here a selling point so easily.
