China’s Defense Ministry says that Australia made “unreasonable accusations” and deliberately hyped the situation after three planes headed to New Zealand changed course in midflight because of live-fire drills by the Chinese navy.

Beijing on Sunday said Canberra had “deliberately hyped” recent Chinese naval exercises near the Australian coast and confirmed its forces had used live fire in an incident th

Australia accused China on Saturday of failing to give satisfactory reasons for what it called inadequate notice of a live-fire drill in waters between Australia and New Zealand that forced airlines to divert flights.