China fires back at US accusations over aerial encounter

China fires back at US accusations over aerial encounter

China today denied its fighter jet pilots operated dangerously during an encounter with a US surveillance plane in international airspace in which the American pilot took evasive action to avoid a possible collision.

Spokesman Ren Guoqiang said in a statement on the defense ministry's microblog that the performance of the pilots of the two J-10 fighters was "legal, necessary and professional.

"Ren criticised frequent close-in surveillance runs by US planes as raising the chance of accidents, saying such missions "threatened China's national security, harmed China-US sea-air military safety, endangered the safety of pilots from the two sides and were the root cause of China-US sea-air unexpected incidents."
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