Beijing has accused Australia and Canada of “spreading misinformation” about allegedly dangerous maneuvers by Chinese military pilots in international airspace.
China also warned Australia to stop “provocations” or face “serious consequences” after the Albanian government said a Chinese plane had intercepted an RAAF plane in a dangerous maneuver in late May.
The day before, Justin Trudeau attacked the “irresponsible and provocative” actions of the Beijing Air Force after Canadian planes deployed in Japan narrowly avoided a collision with Chinese planes late last month.
The incident has once again raised tensions between Beijing and Ottawa, just as a long-running crisis over the arrest of a Chinese technology executive in Canada in 2018 is easing.
China responded to the Canadian Prime Minister ‘s comments by asking Canada to “respect the facts [and] stop spreading misinformation ”.
“Recognizing China’s enemy from Canadian fighter jets is utterly irresponsible and provocative behavior,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news conference on Tuesday.
“China strongly opposes actions that threaten the sovereignty and security of China’s state under any pretext.”
Canadian planes were deployed to Japan for a multinational effort to enforce United Nations sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
They were forced to quickly change their flight path to “avoid a possible collision with the interceptor plane,” the Canadian military said.
In a separate row, Australia claimed last week that Chinese fighter jets intercepted one of its planes over the South China Sea during a routine operation.
Australia has argued that it is not uncommon for it to conduct surveillance flights over the strategic waterway, which Beijing insists is under its control despite a 2016 Hague ruling dismissing its claim.
But China said earlier on Tuesday that an Australian P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft was approaching the airspace of the controversial Paracel Islands, known as Xisha in China, on May 26th.
The plane “approached the reconnaissance, ignoring repeated warnings from the Chinese side,” Defense Ministry spokesman Tan Kefei said.
The People’s Liberation Army organized naval and air forces to identify the military plane, “issuing a warning to expel it,” Tan added.
“The Australian military plane seriously threatened China’s sovereignty and security, and the measures taken by the Chinese military were professional, safe, reasonable and legal,” he said.
Tan accused Australia of spreading “false information” and described the actions of Australian pilots as “dangerous and provocative”.
The Australian government released a statement on Sunday stating that on May 26 “a RAAF P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft was intercepted by a Chinese J-16 fighter jet during a routine maritime surveillance activity in the airspace. in the South China Sea region. “
“The interception led to a dangerous maneuver that posed a threat to the safety of the P-8 aircraft and its crew,” the statement added.
Defense Minister Richard Marles did not disclose the exact location of the incident at the time or the exact distance between the planes, but he did detail more details at a news conference.
“What happened was that the J-16 aircraft flew very close to the side of the P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft,” he said.
“Flying close to the side, he fired flares, the J-16 accelerated and cut the nose of the P-8, settling in front of the P-8 at a very close distance. release a package of straw containing small pieces of aluminum, some of which were ingested into the engine of the P-8 aircraft. This is clearly very dangerous. “
In February, Canberra accused the Chinese military of dazzling a military-grade laser on one of its defense aircraft over North Australian waters, calling it an “act of intimidation”.