US spy planes boost South China Sea sorties, Chinese group says

The Boeing P-8 Poseidon, an anti-submarine surveillance plane, accounted for nearly four-fifths of last month’s flybys, the think tank said. - AFP

BEIJING (Bloomberg): The US military flew a record number of spy planes over the South China Sea in November, a Chinese think tank says, as tensions between the world’s two largest economies simmer.

US aircraft carried out 94 sorties last month, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative said in a post on its verified Weibo account. That was a 25% increase from the February record, according to figures provided by the group, which has reported data on activity on the body of water since 2019.