Albanese rejects China’s argument that Australia was at fault in dangerous aircraft encounter

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected China’s argument that Australia was responsible for a dangerous weekend encounter between their military aircraft in international airspace over the Yellow Sea. Both China and Australia lodged official protests and blamed each other for a Chinese warplane’s extraordinary use of flares against an Australian navy helicopter on Saturday. Australia says its pilot had to take evasive action to avoid flares dropped in the helicopter’s flightpath. There were no injuries of damage. It was the most serious encounter between the two militaries since a Chinese warship was accused of injuring Australian navy divers with sonar pulses in November. Australia plans to raise the encounter with China’s premier when he visits next month.