BEIJING — The American military has accused a Chinese fighter jet of maneuvering too fast and too close to a United States Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane as it flew in international airspace over the East China Sea this week.

The United States Pacific Command said in a statement that one of two Chinese jets involved in an intercept operation on Tuesday had “an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft.”

“This seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred,” the Pacific Command said.

Image Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., the head of the United States Pacific Command. Credit... Logan Mock-Bunting for The New York Times

The episode was the second report of an unsafe intercept recently by a Chinese jet tracking an American spy plane in the waters around China.