Australia's defense forces, joined by New Zealand, have been monitoring Chinese navy vessels since they were spotted last week.

The defence ministry has hit back at Australia’s response to its naval exercises off the east coast, labelling Canberra’s protests as “unreasonable”.

China’s live-fire naval exercises in the Tasman Sea triggered heightened concern but relatively muted criticism from the leaders of Australia and New Zealand on Saturday.

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

China had given notice that its warships could potentially fire live weapons during an exercise in the Tasman Sea, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

The verbal crossfire follows Australia’s complaint that it did not receive sufficient notice of a military drill conducted by Chinese warships on Friday.

China defence ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said on Sunday that Australian complaints over recent Chinese live-fire naval drills in international waters between Australia and New Zealand were "hyped up" and "inconsistent with the facts".

New Zealand said the Chinese navy conducted a live-fire exercise in international waters near the Pacific nation on Saturday, a day after it held a similar drill between Australia and New Zealand that forced airlines to divert flights.

Australia's defense forces, joined by New Zealand, have been monitoring Chinese navy vessels since they were spotted last week.