According to Li Chao, a pilot from the PLA’s Western Theatre Command, the foreign jets had “clear intentions” of intersecting and provoking the Chinese aircraft. Photo: CCTV
Dewey Simin Beijing
Published: 9:00pm, 4 Oct 2025
China has disclosed an incident last year in which one of its J-16 aircraft locked onto and expelled two unnamed foreign stealth fighter jets of a type that has not appeared near the country’s coastal waters since.
State broadcaster CCTV on Friday aired an interview with Li Chao, a pilot from the People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theatre Command, who recounted the event that happened during a coastal training exercise last year.
Without naming any country, Li said the foreign forces had “clear intentions … of intersecting and provoking us” and that they were “directly heading for our two aircraft”.
“Our territorial waters are behind us, and they were approaching us, so we had to go over,” recalled Li, who was operating China’s domestically produced J-16 fighter jet.
