China has accused Australia of spying as the row escalates over an incident where flares were dropped in front of a Navy helicopter forcing it to take evasive action.

The federal government has labelled the action of the Chinese J-10 jet, which launched the flares directly ahead of the Seahawk helicopter, as unprofessional and unsafe.

But China’s Ministry of National Defence spokesman Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang said HMAS Hobart sent the helicopter up three times last Saturday to conduct “close-in reconnaissance and disturb the normal training activities of the Chinese side”.

China responded with a “vocal warning” before taking “legitimate, reasonable, professional, and safe operations to expel it”, he said, in a statement late on Tuesday (Beijing time).

“We urge the Australian side to truly respect China’s sovereignty and security concerns, cease spreading false narratives, strictly constrain the operations of its naval and air forces, stop all dangerous provocations, and avoid undermining the overall relationship between the two countries and the two militaries,” he said.

Australian naval expert Jennifer Parker disputed the claim, saying the ADF was unlikely to send a helicopter to monitor drills when satellite-based capabilities would be more effective.

“It would be highly unlikely for an Australian ship helicopter to provoke China like this during a naval exercise for limited to no benefits,” she told the ABC.

The flares were dropped about 300 metres in front of the chopper and about 60 metres above it.

The helicopter was unaffected and all the crew were safe after it took evasive action.

On Thursday, the chief of the Royal Air Force urged Australia to release any images it had of the incident to help call out Beijing’s unacceptable behaviour in the region.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, who is visiting Canberra for high-level talks, said the British military regularly publicised evidence of similar encounters with Russian warplanes to highlight unacceptable conduct.

“The key lesson is around communication, being super clear about calling out poor behaviour, demonstrating that with the use of video footage and really signalling very clearly to Russia and China and to their air forces what a professional intercept looks like,” Sir Richard told the ABC.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian initially condemned Australia’s actions as a “provocative move” before the defence spokesman made his statement.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said there was “no evidence” to support China’s claims.

“Even if we were in – hypothetically – China’s exclusive economic zone, this would still be an utterly unacceptable, intimidatory and coercive thing to do and we would never accept it,” he told Sky News on Thursday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has not directly responded to the spying claims, but has said there was “no question” that the Australian Defence Force personnel were operating in international waters and airspace.

Australia has also said the Navy aircraft was on a routine flight and operating from HMAS Hobart in the Yellow Sea, as part of an international effort to enforce United Nations sanctions on North Korea.

HMAS Hobart is a guided missile destroyer. It carries a helicopter for surveillance and to support key warfare areas, according to the Navy website.

In November, Australian navy divers from HMAS Toowoomba were injured after a Chinese warship issued sonar pulses.

-with AAP