China blames Australia after fighter jet fired flares in front of an RAAF surveillance aircraft

China accused the RAAF P-8A Poseidon of ‘deliberately intruding into China’s airspace’ while Australia lodged an official protest over the incident that risked the lives of up to a dozen Australians.

Beijing has blamed Australia for an incident in which a Chinese fighter jet fired flares in front of an RAAF surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea.

China accused the plane of “deliberately intruding into China’s airspace” after the Chinese J-16 fighter shot the flares within 30m of an RAAF P-8A Poseidon in an “unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvre” about 1pm on Tuesday.

“The Australian military airplane deliberately intruded into China’s airspace over Xisha Qundao without China’s permission. Such a move violated China’s sovereignty and undermined China’s national security,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters late on Thursday.

The Albanese government has lodged an official protest with Beijing over the dangerous incident that risked the lives of up to a dozen Australians, but China’s foreign ministry spokesman defended the Chinese personnel’s behaviour and said Beijing had lodged its own diplomatic protest.

“The Chinese side took legitimate, lawful, professional and restrained measures to expel the airplane,” Mr Guo said.

“China has lodged serious protests with Australia and urged it to stop infringing on China’s sovereignty and making provocations and stop disrupting peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

The encounter took place near the Paracel Islands, which Beijing calls “Xisha Qundao”. Ownership of the archipelago in the South China Sea is disputed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan. Beijing has engaged in extensive land reclamation in the area, much of which has been used to construct military facilities.

Canberra has said the Australian aircraft was operating in international airspace at the time. It was undamaged and its crew of up to 12 aviators was unhurt.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the incident could have been far worse, as the Chinese pilot could not have known the flares would miss the P-8.

“Had any of those flares hit the P-8, that would have definitely had the potential for significant damage to that aircraft,” Mr Marles told Sky News. “And so as a result, that is an action that we’ve declared as being unsafe.”

Defence sources said the P-8’s crew acted professionally throughout the encounter, speaking to the Chinese jet by radio before the flares were fired.

Australia complained to Chinese officials in Beijing and Canberra about the near-miss, which followed multiple unsafe actions by the PLA in recent times in the vicinity of ADF aircraft and warships.

It came as the Australian Defence Force monitored three Chinese warships operating in the Coral Sea northeast of Australia, one of which passed through the Torres Strait on Tuesday.

Defence said the Chinese vessels were the Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang, the Renhai cruiser Zunyi and the Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu.

“Australia respects the rights of all states to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, just as we expect others to respect Australia’s right to do the same,” Defence said in a statement.

Mr Marles said the Chinese ships operating off Australia were acting legally and there was no direct connection with the incident over the South China Sea.

But he said the government was “responding in a serious way” to the activity, and he had ordered naval and air force assets “to make sure that we are shadowing this to have a clear understanding of what’s going on”.

“So HMAS Arunta right now ... is shadowing the Chinese navy frigate and we’ll continue to monitor their activities, which is very much within our rights … to understand what this task group is doing.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The close-call over the South China Sea followed a similar one in May last year, when a Chinese fighter jet detonated flares near an Australian navy helicopter operating in international waters near South Korea.

About six-months earlier, Australian navy divers sustained minor injuries when a Chinese warship triggered its sonar while they were in the water freeing a fishing net from the propeller of HMAS Toowoomba.

In another incident, in 2022, a Chinese fighter jet released aluminium chaff countermeasures in front of an Australian P-8, fragments of which were sucked into the Australian aircraft’s engine.

Former naval officer Jennifer Parker, an adjunct fellow at UNSW Canberra, said the Chinese aircraft’s behaviour in the latest incident was “incredibly dangerous”.

“If the P-8’s engine had ingested the flares, then – in a worst-case scenario – it could have caused it to crash. Thankfully, the aircraft is safe. But the Chinese fighter pilot didn’t know how this would end,” Ms Parker said.

“And for a long time now, people have been saying we are only steps away from one of these types of incidents causing a potential loss of life.”

People's Liberation Army-navy Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang. Picture: RAN

She said it was part of a trend of unsafe behaviour by the PLA going back more than five years.

“There is very clearly a policy within the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, air force and navy to be aggressive to countries operating in the region that they see as external to the region,” Ms Parker said.

“Now bear in mind, Australia has been operating P-8s in the South China Sea … for a very, very long time.

“I don’t take the view that this is an incident that would have been directed from the senior leadership. I view this as part of a broader policy of being aggressive when you have the opportunity, and certainly incentivising ship captains or pilots, or commanders in general, to be aggressive.”

The incident on Tuesday came after China’s top diplomat in Australia, Xiao Qian, warned Australian military forces to stay out of the South China Sea.

He said moves by “non-regional countries” to send advanced warships and aircraft into the South China Sea “threaten peace and stability in the region, and attempt to drive a wedge between China and other regional countries”.

“This behaviour is highly disgraceful, and China firmly opposes it,” he said in a December interview with The Australian.

“Australia is not a party to the South China Sea issue and should respect China’s sovereignty and the common interests of regional countries.”