Top U.S. and China security officials disagreed this week over what the United States said was China's intercept of a U.S. Navy patrol plane near the southern island province of Hainan.

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice, on a three-day visit to Beijing, told several senior Chinese officials that China must halt the "dangerous intercepts," senior Obama administration officials said.

However, Gen. Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, called on the United States to "reduce and ultimately cease naval and aerial reconnaissance activities near China," according to the official Xinhua News Agency.