China on Tuesday urged the United States to stop "unsafe, unprofessional, unfriendly" actions after a close encounter between Chinese and U.S. military planes over the East China Sea.
A U.S. reconnaissance plane flew over the East China Sea on July 23, and the Chinese pilots' actions were legal, necessary and professional, said Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense.
"The close-in reconnaissance of the U.S. aircraft threatened China's national security, damaged the military safety between two countries and put the pilots of both countries in danger. This is a source of danger for China-U.S. military safety," Ren said.
Ren stressed that the United States should immediately stop these kinds of dangerous military actions, calling them unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly.
The Unites States should take positive action for the development between two countries' armies, Ren said.
The United States claimed on July 24 that two Chinese J-10 fighters unsafely intercepted a U.S. EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft, with the closest distance between the two countries' jets just 91 meters.
