BEIJING, December 7. /TASS/. China demands that Japan stop its slanderous campaign against the actions of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Navy Spokesman Wang Xuemeng said.

Commenting on Tokyo's claims that Chinese forces targeted Japanese fighter jets with radar, the spokesman said: "The Chinese PLA Navy’s Liaoning aircraft carrier group previously conducted scheduled drills east of the Miyako Strait with the use of deck-based fighter jets, and the area of the maneuvers was announced in advance. During the drills, Japanese Self-Defense Forces fighter jets repeatedly approached the airspace of the specified area, which seriously affected the course of the Chinese side's routine exercises and posed a threat to flight safety." "China urges Japan to immediately stop its smear campaign," the Xinhua news agency quoted Wang Xuemeng as saying.

Earlier, Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said that Chinese J-15 fighter jets that took off from the Liaoning aircraft carrier twice locked their radars onto Japanese F-15 fighter jets southeast of Okinawa.

These incidents occurred amid a sharp deterioration in relations, following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's statement during a parliamentary debate that a potential military crisis in Taiwan could pose an "existential threat" forcing Japan to exercise its "right to collective self-defense." This provoked sharp discontent in Beijing, which made a serious representation to Tokyo. The Chinese Foreign Ministry warned its citizens against traveling to Japan.

Taiwan has been governed by its own administration since 1949, when the remnants of the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) fled there after their defeat in the Chinese Civil War. Since then, Taiwan has retained the flag and some other attributes of the former Republic of China that existed on the mainland before the Communists took power. Official Beijing considers Taiwan a province of the People’s Republic of China.