Last Friday, 49 commercial flights had to change their courses due to unexpected naval drills conducted by Chinese warships off Australia's eastern coast. The drills, which involved live-fire exercises, prompted a response from Air Services Australia after a Virgin Australia flight picked up the alarm on an international guard frequency. Although the drills took place in international waters, both Australia and New Zealand criticized China for not providing adequate advance notice. China defended its actions, deeming them safe and professional, while dismissing Australia's criticisms as unfounded.
"At that stage we didn't know if it was a potential hoax or real," Air Services Australia deputy chief executive Peter Curran told a government hearing on Monday evening.
China has defended its conduct as 'safe, standard and professional'. On Saturday, Canberra had said it did not get a satisfactory explanation from Beijing about Friday's drill.
China's Defense Ministry responded on Sunday saying the remarks of the Australian government were 'completely inconsistent with facts'.
'Australia, while well aware of this, made unreasonable accusations against China and deliberately hyped it up,' said Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian.
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