CHINESE JET INTERCEPTS U.S. RECON PLANE: Sure, happens all the time. But the USN says the interception was unsafe and in international airspace. The East China Sea, like the South China Sea, is a contested area.

The East China Sea, where Beijing is embroiled in a dispute with Tokyo over the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, known in China as the Diaoyus, has seen an uptick in similar incidents — including dangerous encounters between Chinese military aircraft and Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets.

The U.S. Navy plane was an EP-3.

RELATED: Old history but worth remembering. The April 2001 collision between a Chinese fighter and a USN EP-3 ARIES recon plane. In 2014 Jim Dunnigan noticed that China’s “aggressive attitude” toward U.S. electronic recon aircraft had returned. The EP-3 is the elint version of the P-3 Orion (photo).