China accuses Japan of ‘smear’ over radar incident

BEIJING—Beijing on Thursday accused Japan of seeking to “smear” it after Tokyo said a Chinese frigate locked its weapons-targeting radar on a Japanese warship, as the Asian giants are locked in a maritime row.

Asked to respond to Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera’s description of the radar incident as a “threat of force”, Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “Recently Japan has been hyping up crisis and deliberately creating tension to smear China’s image.”