China sends a diplomatic protest to Myanmar after a Burmese fighter jet bombed a border area that killed four Chinese.

In response to the air raid, Beijing also lost no time deploying fighter jets to the border with Myanmar on Saturday. The attack happened as Myanmar intensified a crackdown on rebels in the Kokang area near the border with China.  The violence has prompted people to seek safety in neighboring Yunnan province in China.

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Myanmar media have reported government air raids against rebel forces and escalated fighting along the border with China.

China's Xinhua news outlet said an air bomb exploded in a sugarcane plantation in China's city of Lincang, which killed four workers and injured nine other people.

A spokesman for China's Air Force, Col. Shen Jinke, said Beijing sent several fighter jets to ward off any Myanmar warplanes near the Chinese border. Shen said China is keeping an eye on the airspace along the Myanmar border.

Meanwhile, China's vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin summoned the Burmese Ambassador to China Thit Linn Ohn to lodge the protest.

In the protest, China said it "strongly condemns" the deadly air raid and urged Myanmar to investigate the incident. Beijing also asked Myanmar to report the findings, penalize the guilty and take measures to avoid a similar incident, the foreign ministry said.

China denied any connection to ethnic Chinese rebels along its border with Myanmar, insisting it respects its neighbor's sovereignty. Myanmar authorities suspect ex-Chinese fighters have aided the rebels, a suspicion that insurgents have denied.

Myanmar authorities said the worsening conflict should be blamed on a splinter rebel group led by Phone Kya Shin, which tried to capture Laukkai, the capital of Myanmar's self-ruled Kokang area.

The U.S. has long harbored suspicions that Phone Kya Shin, more popularly known as Peng Jiasheng, of taking the lion's share in the drug trade, which involve illegal substances made of methamphetamines and, initially, opium.

The rebel groups used to be the armed wing of the now-defunct Burmese Communist Party, which was supported by China until the party signed a cease-fire deal with the ruling military junta in Myanmar in 1989.