BEIJING, June 7. /TASS/. The actions of an Australian Armed Forces anti-submarine patrol aircraft in the airspace near the South China Sea posed a serious threat to China's security and sovereignty, Chinese National Defense Ministry Spokesman Tan Kefei said on Tuesday, adding that Beijing calls on Canberra to stop such dangerous provocations.

"On May 26, An Australian P-8 anti-submarine patrol aircraft entered the airspace near China's Xisha for close reconnaissance and continuously approached China's Xisha airspace despite repeated warnings from the Chinese side," Tan Kefei said in a statement posted on the National Defense Ministry's WeChat social media account. He stressed that the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Zone Combat Command sent planes and ships to identify the Australian plane and warned it to leave the area.

"The Australian warplane posed a serious threat to China's security and sovereignty. The Chinese Armed Forces took professional, safe, rational and lawful measures," the spokesman pointed out.

He also noted that the Australians distorted the truth, and repeatedly have been spreading false information, stoking artificial confrontation, which is why the Chinese strongly protested Canberra’s actions. "We earnestly call on the Australian side to immediately stop such dangerous provocative actions and strictly limit the actions of the naval and air forces, otherwise it [the Australian side] will have to bear all the serious consequences that follow," Tan Kefei warned.

Earlier, the Australian Defense Ministry reported that a Boeing P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine patrol aircraft of the Australian Navy was intercepted by a Chinese J-16 fighter jet on May 26 during a routine surveillance mission in international airspace near the South China Sea. According to the agency, the Chinese jet forced the Australian P-8 to return to base by firing flares dangerously close to the aircraft.