Video claims to show Chinese fighter intercepting American aircraft – fact check

A video shared on Facebook claims to show a Chinese fighter aircraft intercepting an American aircraft.

Verdict: Misleading

The aircraft being intercepted was Canadian, not American.

Fact Check:

The U.S. is mulling whether or not to adopt stricter trade restrictions on chips that would help constrain China’s chip industry, according to Bloomberg. (RELATED: Beijing Claims’ Volt Typhoon’ Is A US Disinformation Campaign)

Social media users have been sharing a video claiming to show a Chinese fighter jet intercepting an American aircraft. One user wrote, “In the airspace of the South China Sea, a Chinese PLA Air Force fighter jet is repelling a US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft. The two planes are only 3 meters apart.”

This claim is misleading. While the fighter jet in the video is Chinese, the other aircraft is not American, it is Canadian. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found that the video is from October 2023 and shows a Chinese fighter jet intercepting a Canadian surveillance aircraft in international waters off the coast of China.

“A Chinese military jet intercepted a Canadian Armed Forces Aurora aircraft in an “aggressive manner” on Monday in international waters off the coast of China. ‘They became very aggressive and to a degree we would deem it unsafe and unprofessional,’ Maj.-Gen. Iain Huddleston told Global News. In the exclusive footage, Global News’ Neetu Garcha can be heard saying ‘are we okay?’ while a man on board the aircraft later said, ‘This is an abnormal and unusual intercept,’” the video description partially reads.

The Canadian surveillance aircraft was not in the South China Sea, as claimed by the post. It was near North Korea, as part of a United Nations operation meant to enforce sanctions against the isolated state, according to Reuters.