Beijing is objecting to an Indian aerial vehicle's intrusion into its airspace after the unmanned vehicle crashed in Chinese territory.

The official Xinhua News Agency on Thursday cited the deputy chief of the Chinese military's Western Theater Command Zhang Shuili as expressing China's "dissatisfaction and opposition" to the intrusion.

It cited Zhang as saying Chinese border troops identified the device and would continue to maintain China's sovereignty and security.

No further details were given about the vehicle or when or where it crashed.

Much of the 3,500-kilometer (2,174-mile) border between China and India is contested, and the neighbors fought a brief but bloody frontier war in 1962.