October 22, 2025

Australia's accusation of a Chinese warplane's interaction with an Australian military aircraft in the South China Sea is an attempt to cover up its illegal intrusion into China's territorial airspace, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday, stressing that the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command's operations to resolutely stop and expel the Australian aircraft are lawful and professional.

In response to Australian Defense Ministry's recent statement claiming that an Australian military P-8A patrol aircraft conducting a patrol in the South China Sea experienced an "unsafe and unprofessional interaction" with Chinese military aircraft on Sunday, with the Chinese aircraft releasing flares that "posed a risk" to the Australian aircraft and its personnel, Jiang Bin, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson, said on Wednesday that the Australian statement confounded right and wrong and misplaced the blame to the Chinese side, attempting to cover up its serious misconduct of sending a military aircraft to illegally intrude into China's territorial airspace. "We express strong dissatisfaction with this and have made stern representations to the Australian side," he said.

The troops of the PLA Southern Theater Command organized forces to resolutely stop and expel the Australian military aircraft that intruded China's territorial airspace over Xisha. The relevant operations are lawful, professional, up to standard and restrained. Australia made infringements and provocations against China, but falsely accused China's legitimate rights-protecting actions as "unsafe" and "unprofessional." Such fallacy finds no market anywhere, Jiang said.

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