China fires back at US accusations over aerial encounter

China on Tuesday 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 criticized 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."