More US missions in South China Sea a factor in F-35C fighter crash, says Chinese researcher

More frequent military exercises carried out as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to counter China in the Indo-Pacific are partly to blame for the crash of a F-35C jet in the South China Sea, according to a Chinese observer.

Chen Xiangmiao, an assistant research fellow with the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said the United States had ramped up its military activities in the South China Sea in the past year to make “potential enemies clearly aware that the costs and risks of aggression are not commensurate with any conceivable benefits”.