China accuses Australia, Canada of ‘disinformation’ over jet encounters

BEIJING: Beijing on Tuesday accused Australia and Canada of "spreading disinformation" over allegedly dangerous manoeuvres by Chinese military pilots in international airspace.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a day earlier hit out at "irresponsible and provocative" actions by Beijing’s air force after Canadian aircraft deployed in Japan narrowly avoided a collision with Chinese jets late last month.

The incident has again heightened tensions between Beijing and Ottawa, just as a lengthy crisis over Canada’s 2018 arrest of a Chinese tech executive subsides. China responded to Trudeau’s comments by calling on Canada to "respect the facts (and) stop spreading disinformation".

"Canadian fighter jets’ enemy reconnaissance of China is out-and-out irresponsible and provocative behaviour," said foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at a press briefing on Tuesday.

"China resolutely opposes actions that threaten China’s state sovereignty and security under any pretext." The Canadian aircraft were deployed in Japan for a multinational effort to enforce United Nations sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

They were forced to quickly modify their flight path to "avoid a potential collision with the intercepting aircraft", the Canadian military said. In a separate row, Australia claimed last week that Chinese fighter planes intercepted one of its jets over the South China Sea during a routine operation.