By Michael Martina&nbsp;and&nbsp;Martin Quin Pollard
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - When a&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;warship came within 150 yards of a U.S. destroyer in the Taiwan Strait on Saturday&nbsp;and&nbsp;forced it to slow down, it was the second time in a matter of days in which&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;and&nbsp;U.S. military personnel came close to a major incident.
Late last month a&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;fighter jet flew in front of a U.S. warplane over the South China Sea, drawing a rebuke from the United States.
After the warship encounter on Saturday, the White House accused China of &ldquo;growing aggressiveness&rdquo;. China has said that such U.S. military activity in international waters is "deliberately provoking risk.&rdquo;
Here is&nbsp;why&nbsp;these recent close&nbsp;encounters&nbsp;between the U.S.&nbsp;and&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;militaries&nbsp;may&nbsp;continue:
CHINA PUSHING BACK
Under President Xi Jinping, China has embarked on what U.S. officials say is one of the largest peacetime military buildups in history.
Beijing is&nbsp;using its growing military capability&nbsp;and&nbsp;economic clout to push back on decades-old U.S. military dominance in Asia. China regards the United States as an outsider interfering in a region in which it sees itself as a force for peace&nbsp;and&nbsp;stability.
A particular source of tension are the "freedom of navigation" patrols in which the United States&nbsp;and&nbsp;its allies sail naval vessels through the Taiwan Strait&nbsp;and&nbsp;the South China Sea.
The United States says such patrols defend the right of all countries to sail in international waters.
China has complained about U.S. vessels&nbsp;and&nbsp;aircraft in the Taiwan Strait&nbsp;and&nbsp;in the South China Sea close to islands it controls, claims, or constructed&nbsp;and&nbsp;turned into military installations. The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) typically trails the U.S. vessels.
Some analysts say&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;military commanders have been encouraged to act more assertively against foreign military ships&nbsp;and&nbsp;planes.
"I think what we are seeing is likely a general encouragement, maybe even incentive scheme for (PLA) unit commanders to be aggressive when the opportunity presents, which is at the unit level encouraging more reckless behaviour,&rdquo; said Jennifer Parker, a defence expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Other recent incidents in the South China Sea have seen a&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;coast guard ship direct a "military-grade laser" at a Philippines vessel in February,&nbsp;and&nbsp;Vietnam last month demand&nbsp;Beijing remove survey vessels from its waters.
China said both incidents were lawful&nbsp;and&nbsp;normal.
Its defence ministry did not immediately have comment on the assertion it was encouraging more aggressive behaviour.
This approach from the PLA increases the chances of a collision, which could spiral into armed conflict, says Derek Grossman, senior defence analyst at the RAND&nbsp;Corporation, a U.S. think tank.
"In my view, this is the no. 1 scenario that leads the U.S.&nbsp;and&nbsp;China to war,&nbsp;and&nbsp;less so Beijing seizing a feature in the disputed South China Sea or attacking Taiwan," he said.
ON A COLLISION COURSE?
Making the situation more&nbsp;dangerous&nbsp;are the starkly different views of the U.S.&nbsp;and&nbsp;China about the source of the problem. The United States sees China as disrupting the status&nbsp;quo with its threats against Taiwan, the self-governed island&nbsp;that China claims as its own,&nbsp;and&nbsp;its territorial claims to the resource-rich South China Sea.
The answer from the U.S. perspective is to&nbsp;continue&nbsp;asserting its right to sail&nbsp;and&nbsp;fly near China.
China's ruling Communist Party sees those U.S. actions as provocative&nbsp;and&nbsp;believes U.S. pursuit of military dominance is the real cause of the dangers in the region, said Tong Zhao, a visiting scholar at Princeton University&rsquo;s School of Public&nbsp;and&nbsp;International Affairs.
"Chinese&nbsp;officials generally don't see China's own behaviours contributing to risks," he said.
"And&nbsp;therefore their logic is China can only reduce the risk by stepping up its military measures to confront the U.S.'s aggressive behaviours,&nbsp;and&nbsp;to make the United States really feel concerned about incidents.&nbsp;And&nbsp;that's when the United States would eventually take the necessary measures to reduce the risk."
NO COMMUNICATION
Add to this one other problem: the lack of reliable communication channels between the two&nbsp;militaries.
The U.S. military has long pushed China for open lines of communication with the PLA - both at senior&nbsp;and&nbsp;lower levels - to mitigate the risk that accidents become military flare-ups.
China's leaders, by contrast, have been slow to establish military contacts&nbsp;and&nbsp;quick to shut them down during periods of diplomatic tension, U.S. officials say.
China suspended several high-level military dialogues with the Pentagon after former U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last summer&nbsp;and&nbsp;declined a U.S. request for a phone call between the two countries' defence chiefs after the downing of&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;spy balloon in U.S. airspace this year.
A senior U.S. defence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that since 2021 China had declined or not responded to more than a dozen requests to talk with the Pentagon&nbsp;and&nbsp;nearly ten working-level engagement requests.
China's defence ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
Analysts say that China is wary of military talks that could give the United States greater insight into PLA operations.&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;leaders would also prefer to keep U.S.-China discussions focused on trade&nbsp;and&nbsp;economic issues.
The dangers are not hypothetical, however.
In 2001 a U.S. spy plane made an emergency landing on Hainan island&nbsp;after a collision with a&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;fighter jet.
One&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;pilot died&nbsp;and&nbsp;Beijing detained the 24-member U.S. crew for 11 days, releasing them only after Washington sent a letter saying it was "very sorry."
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(Reporting By Michael Martina&nbsp;and&nbsp;Martin Pollard; Additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian&nbsp;and&nbsp;Laurie Chen in Beijing; Editing by Don Durfee&nbsp;and&nbsp;Gerry Doyle)

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