BEIJING: China’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday it was still verifying what had happened in an incident last week which the Pentagon said involved a Chinese aircraft performing an unsafe manoeuvre during an air intercept of a US spy plane.

The intercept occurred on September 15, about 130 km east of the Shandong peninsula in the Yellow Sea and involved an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane, said a Pentagon spokesman.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said China had always been committed to maintaining maritime and air safety in accordance with international laws and norms, and to establishing mutual military trust with other countries to appropriately manage differences. “As for the detailed incident you mentioned, the relevant situation is still being further verified,” Wu told a regular monthly news conference.

He did not elaborate. The news came as Chinese President Xi Jinping was beginning his first state visit to the United States. The intercept was the latest in a series of moves by China seen as an assertion of the expanding reach of its military.

This month, five Chinese navy ships sailed in the Bering Sea off Alaska as US President Barack Obama toured the US state.