Today, video surfaced purporting to show a Chinese submarine-launched missile nearly missed a passenger plane passing overhead.
The clip uploaded on social media appears to have been shot from the passenger jet’s cockpit.
A Cathay Pacific plane was traveling over the South China Sea when the crews received a call from air traffic control asking them to ‘turn left 90 degrees quickly!’ according to Allegiant Air pilot John Carter.
The plane was apparently flying over the South China Sea when it had to change course to evade a JL-3 missile launched from a Chinese military type 094 nuclear submarine.
Experts believe it to be genuine, including submarines and sub-surface systems analyst H. I. Sutton, who said the footage ‘looks credible’.
The video shows what looks like a missile soaring above the clouds moments after rippling up through the ocean and disappearing into the sky.
There were no Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) sent out to warn aircraft that a missile launch was scheduled, suggesting that the test may have been intended to be carried out in secret.
The video first emerged on may 24, but the actual date and location of the video’s shooting remain unknown.
On May 26, China announced it would conduct drills in the South China Sea.
‘Military exercises will be held and entry is prohibited,’ the Maritime Safety administration said in a statement, warning that an area of roughly 100 square kilometers would be closed off to maritime traffic for five hours, according to TheDefencePost.
Another exercise in an area of the sea near Hainan is scheduled for this week.
North Korea fired a suspected short-range submarine-launched ballistic missile from the Sinpo area toward its east coast on May 7, but the site is a long distance away from the South China Sea.
China has become more assertive in the area. Last week, it admitted carrying out a military exercise around Taiwan as a ‘solemn warning’ against its ‘collusion’ with the US.
China has never renounced the use of force to bring democratically ruled Taiwan under its control, and the Taiwan Strait remains a potential military flashpoint.
While the United States abides by a ‘one China’ policy, recognising only Beijing, it has made a commitment under its Taiwan Relations Act ‘to help provide Taiwan the means to defend itself’.
Despite that, it has long held a policy of not specifying how it might react in the event of a Chinese attack on the island.
China also announced last week that joint aerial exercises were held on Tuesday with Russia over the Sea of Japan, East China Sea and Western Pacific.
The patrol, the first since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was part of an annual military exercise, China’s defence ministry had said on its website on Tuesday.
The US already provides fighter jets and Patriot missiles to Taiwan, but official policy is deliberately ambiguous in keeping with the ‘one China’ policy.