Beijing accused Washington of "hype" on Wednesday after the US said two Chinese jets conducted an unsafe intercept of one of its spy planes over the East China Sea. The spat came soon after the world's two largest economies concluded an annual dialogue overshadowed by disagreements over maritime issues. US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham said two Chinese J-10 fighter jets flew close to an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol.
The Pentagon downplayed the encounter and blamed it on shoddy piloting. "One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft," Benham said, without specifying exactly where the incident occurred. "The US once again is deliberately hyping this issue," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing on Wednesday. "The relevant Chinese military personnel have always acted professionally and in accordance with law." He also called on the US to stop carrying out "close surveillance activity against China...to prevent similar incidents from happening again".