Exactly. The Chinese pilot who collided with the Navy EP-3 was honored. He was pretty dead at the time but none the less. The Chinese want their pilots to fly like this.

Fearmongering because we're in a second cold war with China. That's what this is.

FAFO?

You mean in international airspace over international waters?

For some context, the South China Sea is a giant sea between China, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and a few others. Currently, China is pushing for what it calls the "Nine-Dash Line" policy which would in effect forcibly blockade all other ASEAN nations from trading.

Imagine if Italy claimed the entire Mediterranean Sea including the coastline of other nations, then prevented others from trading under the threat of military invasion. That's basically what China is trying to do here.

There's flying, and the there's flying like a moron. No matter where you are, in your own air space or someone else's, flying like a moron is a terrible idea.

This happened in international airspace. Doesn't matter what the body of water is called. The entirety of the gulf of Mexico doesn't belong to Mexico either. Nor does the Indian ocean belong to India.

Also the China Sea was originally named by the Portuguese.

By that logic the Atlantic Ocean belongs to Atlanta

You checking your China 'this is totally all mine' new map in your notes? The 9 dash line is hand drawn and totally arbitrary, and is basically saying 'this is mine now.'

Also known as the Vietnamese East Sea, Malaysian Champa Sea, Indonesian North Natuna Sea, and Philippines Luzon Sea.

As long as they don't go anywhere in the Indian Ocean.

What difference would that make? They're not going to shoot it down.

There are only fighter escorts if there is a specific threat with hostile intent that requires them. Most non-fighter Air Force aircraft don’t fly with escorts routinely.

There were fighter pilots from 3 nations escorting a B52 on Sunday. The articles I can find for the Tuesday flight do not mention any fighter escorts.

https://www.flyingmag.com/us-japan-south-korea-conduct-trilateral-b-52-escort-exercise/

Most likely the bomber was flying there to establish our right to do. By not being a fighter it helps avoid an engagement. I have no specific knowledge of this incident, but in general we don't want an engagement as that can escalate quicky. We just want to say that we don't recognize the borders they claim.

No, we don't really do that any more. It's not really necessary.

We put the fighters where they need to be when they need to be there. This bomber is just flying its patrol route, they don't need to be protected along their path to the target, they don't need to be anywhere near their targets, they're loaded with cruise missiles and they strike from dozens or hundreds of miles away.

China can just forcibly move people whenever they want so this isn't really a concern for them.