[FLASH]http://cdn-07.liveleak.com/liveleak/14/media14/2007/Nov/26/LiveLeak-dot-com-123964-Chinas_rebuke.wmv[/FLASH]China denied US Kitty Hawk port entry in Hong Kong.
China Snub's US Navy
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- Start date
Chinese Say No, Then Yes, To Hong Kong Visit By USS Kitty Hawk
China Snubs U.S. Navy; U.S. Navy then Snubs China
Sun, 25 Nov '07
A long standing order blocking a US aircraft carrier group from visiting Hong Kong on Thanksgiving was reversed on Thursday, November 22. The change in heart by the Chinese government came too late to allow the holiday visit and the ships continued on to their Japanese base, according to Reuters.
The U.S. State Department said the visit had been refused canceling the initial plan for the USS Kitty Hawk group and its 8000 airmen and sailors in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Chinese officials appeared to have changed their minds after hundreds of relatives of the U.S. crew members had flown to the former British colony of Hong Kong to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday.
"We have decided to allow the Kitty Hawk to stay in Hong Kong during Thanksgiving," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference. "It is a decision based on humanitarian considerations only." Word may have come too late to change course, but Navy officials are saying little about the incident.
"The Kitty Hawk's returning to Yokosuka," said Lieutenant Commander John Filostrat. "When they were refused entry they began heading back and that remains the situation", he said.
Holiday visitors hoping to see their family members were dismayed. "I miss my daddy," said Mark Curry, 14, whose father is aboard one of the vessels. "We thought he was going to be there, but we don't know what actually happened. I was just depressed."
The surprise move by the Chinese came just weeks after a U.S. visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. His visit was thought to have opened up dialogue between the U.S. and Chinese officials. China spokesman Liu did not offer any information about why the ships were initially blocked, but indicated Beijing may have had other reasons for the decision.
Reasons that may have led to the decision are that the U.S. has plans to sell Taiwan a $940 million upgrade to its missile system and an October meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader whom Beijing considers a traitor, said Reuters. A Chinese submarine surfaced unusually close to the Kitty Hawk last year near the Japanese island of Okinawa, an incident that could have promoted friction between the two powers.
Beijing's decision over the group's visit, coincided with "airspace controls" introduced on Wednesday which the Xinhua news agency said affected the air travel plans of 7,000 people in south and east China. No reason for the controls or why they had been ordered was offered by the Chinese. The Kitty Hawk, due to be decommissioned next year, last visited Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving stopover in 2005.
"Everyone in Wanchai is disappointed," said Cady Chan, the manager of the New Makati Inn.
"This was the last time the Kitty Hawk was coming to Hong Kong, this would have been a red-hot time." The indecisive action by the Chinese may have diplomatic implications later with the US.
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=3ed00918-9264-4ea9-bd7d-6c35f8f72fef
China Snubs U.S. Navy; U.S. Navy then Snubs China
Sun, 25 Nov '07
A long standing order blocking a US aircraft carrier group from visiting Hong Kong on Thanksgiving was reversed on Thursday, November 22. The change in heart by the Chinese government came too late to allow the holiday visit and the ships continued on to their Japanese base, according to Reuters.
The U.S. State Department said the visit had been refused canceling the initial plan for the USS Kitty Hawk group and its 8000 airmen and sailors in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Chinese officials appeared to have changed their minds after hundreds of relatives of the U.S. crew members had flown to the former British colony of Hong Kong to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday.
"We have decided to allow the Kitty Hawk to stay in Hong Kong during Thanksgiving," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference. "It is a decision based on humanitarian considerations only." Word may have come too late to change course, but Navy officials are saying little about the incident.
"The Kitty Hawk's returning to Yokosuka," said Lieutenant Commander John Filostrat. "When they were refused entry they began heading back and that remains the situation", he said.
Holiday visitors hoping to see their family members were dismayed. "I miss my daddy," said Mark Curry, 14, whose father is aboard one of the vessels. "We thought he was going to be there, but we don't know what actually happened. I was just depressed."
The surprise move by the Chinese came just weeks after a U.S. visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. His visit was thought to have opened up dialogue between the U.S. and Chinese officials. China spokesman Liu did not offer any information about why the ships were initially blocked, but indicated Beijing may have had other reasons for the decision.
Reasons that may have led to the decision are that the U.S. has plans to sell Taiwan a $940 million upgrade to its missile system and an October meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader whom Beijing considers a traitor, said Reuters. A Chinese submarine surfaced unusually close to the Kitty Hawk last year near the Japanese island of Okinawa, an incident that could have promoted friction between the two powers.
Beijing's decision over the group's visit, coincided with "airspace controls" introduced on Wednesday which the Xinhua news agency said affected the air travel plans of 7,000 people in south and east China. No reason for the controls or why they had been ordered was offered by the Chinese. The Kitty Hawk, due to be decommissioned next year, last visited Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving stopover in 2005.
"Everyone in Wanchai is disappointed," said Cady Chan, the manager of the New Makati Inn.
"This was the last time the Kitty Hawk was coming to Hong Kong, this would have been a red-hot time." The indecisive action by the Chinese may have diplomatic implications later with the US.
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=3ed00918-9264-4ea9-bd7d-6c35f8f72fef
tit for tat QueEx
Super Moderator
Super Moderator
Good for them.
Pentagon Makes Official Protest to China
Associated Press
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
November 28, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon formally protested China's refusal to permit U.S. Navy ships to enter the port of Hong Kong on two occasions last week.
"We are expressing officially our displeasure with the incident," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters Wednesday. He said a Chinese military officer who is Beijing's defense attache in Washington was called to the Pentagon to accept the protest from a Pentagon Asia policy official. Morrell called it "a formal protest, an official protest, complaint," for refusing port entry for two U.S. Navy minesweepers and, later, for the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying battle group.
Also, the Chinese foreign minister met with President Bush on Wednesday and blamed the incident on "a misunderstanding."
Morrell said that it is not yet clear whether the Chinese military officer will indeed heed the summons to come to the Pentagon. Morrell said the summons constituted the official protest, but he did not release the wording.
China Refused Two Small U.S. Vessels Passage From Storm
Navy officials have said they are most troubled by China's refusal to let the two Navy minesweepers enter Hong Kong harbor to escape an approaching storm and receive fuel. The minesweepers, the Patriot and the Guardian, were instead refueled at sea and returned safely to their home port in Japan.
In addition, the Chinese also refused to allow the Kitty Hawk, a U.S. aircraft carrier, to make a planned Thanksgiving port visit to Hong Kong.
The USS Kitty Hawk, which has its home port near Tokyo, was forced to return early to Japan when Chinese authorities at the last minute barred the warship and its escort vessels from entering Hong Kong harbor. Hundreds of families of sailors aboard the Kitty Hawk had flown from Japan to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Hong Kong, but had to return home after China refused the port entry.
Later Chinese officials said the Kitty Hawk could enter the port, but by then the carrier had left the area and did not return.
On Wednesday, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former chief of the Navy, said China's refusal to let the minesweepers dock went against international rules.
"That's an international rule that people who go to sea and responsible nations who are seagoing nations understand, that you always provide safe harbor, then you figure out, if you want to figure out some of the details .... China chose not to do that," Mullen told a political science class at Yale University. "That's perplexing to me. I don't understand that."
Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, called the refusal distressing and irritating but later said it should not be viewed as "calamitous."
"It's not, in our view, conduct that is indicative of a country that understands its obligations as a responsible nation," he said Tuesday. He added that he hopes it does not indicate a lasting blockage of port visits.
China's foreign minister, in the meeting with Bush, blamed "a misunderstanding" for the refusal to allow a flotilla of U.S. warships to make a port call in Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving holiday visit.
Bush raised the issue with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi when he visited the Oval Office for talks about North Korea, Iran and other issues. The incident added an unusual twist to China-U.S. relations, strained in recent months by disputes over trade and Iran's nuclear program.
"Foreign Minister Yang assured the president that it was a misunderstanding," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. She said she could not explain the nature of the misunderstanding.
Li Junhua, a senior diplomat in China's U.N. Mission, said that before the final approval was given to the Kitty Hawk, "it took time to finalize everything." Asked if the refusal had anything to do with the U.S. giving the Dalai Lama an award last month, Li said the Chinese government "sent its clear-cut view with regard to the visit by Dalai Lama to Washington. However, with regard to the vessel port call, I think it's up to the government of each country to go through its formality and it's case by case. I hope there's no linkage with the routine port call with any kind of issues, not only for China but for any other countries."
China's foreign minister issued a strong protest to the U.S. ambassador after the award was given, and the Chinese government said the move gravely undermined relations between the two countries. China reviles the Dalai Lama as a Tibetan separatist.
The Kitty Hawk and members of its strike group, including a nuclear submarine, were scheduled to dock in Hong Kong for a four-day visit. At the same time hundreds of sailors' families had flown to the city to spend the holiday with loved ones, dozens of Americans living in Hong Kong had prepared turkey dinners for those without relatives.
Hong Kong has long been a favored port of call for the U.S. military but Beijing's approval has been required since July 1, 1997, when Britain handed the former colony back to China. Hong Kong's Marine Department, which handles logistic arrangements for ships docking in Hong Kong's deep-water port, said it had not received the documentation it normally would receive from other agencies clearing the arrival of foreign military ships.
Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann in Washington, Cara Rubinsky in New Haven, Conn., and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, contributed to this story.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZZKrQszTnCrVHedQoazSUulMrvAD8T6V0580
Associated Press
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
November 28, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon formally protested China's refusal to permit U.S. Navy ships to enter the port of Hong Kong on two occasions last week.
"We are expressing officially our displeasure with the incident," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters Wednesday. He said a Chinese military officer who is Beijing's defense attache in Washington was called to the Pentagon to accept the protest from a Pentagon Asia policy official. Morrell called it "a formal protest, an official protest, complaint," for refusing port entry for two U.S. Navy minesweepers and, later, for the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying battle group.
Also, the Chinese foreign minister met with President Bush on Wednesday and blamed the incident on "a misunderstanding."
Morrell said that it is not yet clear whether the Chinese military officer will indeed heed the summons to come to the Pentagon. Morrell said the summons constituted the official protest, but he did not release the wording.
China Refused Two Small U.S. Vessels Passage From Storm
Navy officials have said they are most troubled by China's refusal to let the two Navy minesweepers enter Hong Kong harbor to escape an approaching storm and receive fuel. The minesweepers, the Patriot and the Guardian, were instead refueled at sea and returned safely to their home port in Japan.
In addition, the Chinese also refused to allow the Kitty Hawk, a U.S. aircraft carrier, to make a planned Thanksgiving port visit to Hong Kong.
The USS Kitty Hawk, which has its home port near Tokyo, was forced to return early to Japan when Chinese authorities at the last minute barred the warship and its escort vessels from entering Hong Kong harbor. Hundreds of families of sailors aboard the Kitty Hawk had flown from Japan to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Hong Kong, but had to return home after China refused the port entry.
Later Chinese officials said the Kitty Hawk could enter the port, but by then the carrier had left the area and did not return.
On Wednesday, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former chief of the Navy, said China's refusal to let the minesweepers dock went against international rules.
"That's an international rule that people who go to sea and responsible nations who are seagoing nations understand, that you always provide safe harbor, then you figure out, if you want to figure out some of the details .... China chose not to do that," Mullen told a political science class at Yale University. "That's perplexing to me. I don't understand that."
Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, called the refusal distressing and irritating but later said it should not be viewed as "calamitous."
"It's not, in our view, conduct that is indicative of a country that understands its obligations as a responsible nation," he said Tuesday. He added that he hopes it does not indicate a lasting blockage of port visits.
China's foreign minister, in the meeting with Bush, blamed "a misunderstanding" for the refusal to allow a flotilla of U.S. warships to make a port call in Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving holiday visit.
Bush raised the issue with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi when he visited the Oval Office for talks about North Korea, Iran and other issues. The incident added an unusual twist to China-U.S. relations, strained in recent months by disputes over trade and Iran's nuclear program.
"Foreign Minister Yang assured the president that it was a misunderstanding," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. She said she could not explain the nature of the misunderstanding.
Li Junhua, a senior diplomat in China's U.N. Mission, said that before the final approval was given to the Kitty Hawk, "it took time to finalize everything." Asked if the refusal had anything to do with the U.S. giving the Dalai Lama an award last month, Li said the Chinese government "sent its clear-cut view with regard to the visit by Dalai Lama to Washington. However, with regard to the vessel port call, I think it's up to the government of each country to go through its formality and it's case by case. I hope there's no linkage with the routine port call with any kind of issues, not only for China but for any other countries."
China's foreign minister issued a strong protest to the U.S. ambassador after the award was given, and the Chinese government said the move gravely undermined relations between the two countries. China reviles the Dalai Lama as a Tibetan separatist.
The Kitty Hawk and members of its strike group, including a nuclear submarine, were scheduled to dock in Hong Kong for a four-day visit. At the same time hundreds of sailors' families had flown to the city to spend the holiday with loved ones, dozens of Americans living in Hong Kong had prepared turkey dinners for those without relatives.
Hong Kong has long been a favored port of call for the U.S. military but Beijing's approval has been required since July 1, 1997, when Britain handed the former colony back to China. Hong Kong's Marine Department, which handles logistic arrangements for ships docking in Hong Kong's deep-water port, said it had not received the documentation it normally would receive from other agencies clearing the arrival of foreign military ships.
Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann in Washington, Cara Rubinsky in New Haven, Conn., and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, contributed to this story.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZZKrQszTnCrVHedQoazSUulMrvAD8T6V0580
HMMMM INTERESTING
Whats more interesting is that after China denied port visitation; the Kitty
Hawk group departed waters off Hong Kong for its homeport in Yokosuka,
Japan. Of course, the Chinese tried to reverse course and grant the group
entry, however, at that time, the decision had been made to say fuck em,
lets go home. And what route did they take ???
Right through the gotdamn Strait of Taiwan between China and Taiwan.
HooMuthafukinRah
QueEx
Right through the gotdamn Strait of Taiwan 
ur starting to gain my respect...
Like I said in another thread
Even though Iraq is quieting down problems for American will come from other areas. China will be aggressive, so will Iran and North Korea. Latino gangs will get involved in terrorism. Rich people will be victims of home invasions like that brotha Sean Taylor. This is getting out of hand and the worst is yet to come.
Even though Iraq is quieting down problems for American will come from other areas. China will be aggressive, so will Iran and North Korea. Latino gangs will get involved in terrorism. Rich people will be victims of home invasions like that brotha Sean Taylor. This is getting out of hand and the worst is yet to come.
Good for the right republicans and republicratic economic supply siders that sold our national security to the Chinese for the selling out of our economic security. Good for those that think that China is some sort of military threat. China has never been a military threat and much less so than we aren (United States). If you think they are prove it. Good for those that think Bush can do anything about it. If China starts demanding payments for all of those loans they have on our securities, you will see how low Wall Street can go.
Last edited:
U.S. ships, barred from Hong Kong,
now sail under China's nose
now sail under China's nose
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Saturday, December 1, 2007
BEIJING — A spat over China's denial of port calls to U.S. naval vessels has led the Pentagon to deploy an increasing number of large ships to transit the Taiwan Strait in some of the most sensitive waters in East Asia.
While the U.S. Navy has explained the passage of at least seven ships through the Strait in the past nine days as the result of bad weather, it also conveys U.S. displeasure to China over its refusal to let Navy vessels dock in Hong Kong.
China has now refused entry to nine U.S. Navy vessels into Hong Kong harbor. On Friday, Navy officials said China denied permission to a U.S. Air Force C-17 flight that had been scheduled for a routine re-supply of the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong.
The sudden port denials have angered Pentagon officials, and baffled U.S. policymakers puzzling over the message China seeks to send.
China refused two U.S. minesweepers — the USS Patriot and the USS Guardian — from entering Hong Kong to escape bad weather on Nov. 21, then barred the USS Kitty Hawk and its escort ships and an accompanying nuclear-powered submarine from docking in Hong Kong for a long-scheduled Thanksgiving port call.
About 290 family members of Navy seamen had traveled to Hong Kong to be with the sailors during the holiday, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Steve Curry of the U.S. Seventh Fleet public affairs office in Yokosuka, Japan.
After China's refusal of entry, Fleet commanders ordered both the minesweepers and the Kitty Hawk carrier group to move through the Taiwan Strait toward Japan.
"Due to the adverse weather and worsening sea conditions in the surrounding area, it was decided that the prudent path for safer seas was to transit the Strait," Curry said.
A Pacific Fleet spokesman in Honolulu, Jon Yoshishige, said it is "not unusual for our ships to transit the Taiwan Strait."
Yet entire aircraft carrier battle groups rarely do so. The last time that occurred was in 2002 when the USS Constellation aircraft carrier and its escort ships moved through the strait.
A guided missile cruiser and three guided missile destroyers escorted the Kitty Hawk. Curry did not explain why the USS Topeka, a nuclear-powered submarine that is part of the carrier battle group, did not move through the Strait as well.
The Taiwan Strait, barely 100 miles wide at its narrowest, is a potential military flashpoint. Mainland China claims Taiwan as a renegade province, and says it has the right to seize control of the independently governed island with its military. It aims more than 900 short-range ballistic missiles across the Strait.
The Strait, which bustles with ships, is barely 230 feet deep at its deepest, adding hazard to passage.
Some 50 U.S. Navy ships normally make port calls each year in Hong Kong, a favored port for sailors. Why China has suddenly refused port entry is unclear.
"It's definitely meant to signal some dissatisfaction with American actions, and I think Taiwan is the main one," said Susan Shirk, a China expert at the University of California in San Diego, and a former State Department official dealing with East Asia issues.
Washington agreed in September to sell 12 P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft to Taipei, and announced in mid-November that it would upgrade anti-missile batteries around Taiwan's capital.
China has decried the U.S. arms sales as a danger to its national security.
A major military exercise in recent days along China's eastern seaboard is reported to have delayed scores of commercial airline flights in the region.
Yet Beijing has not explained why it cancelled the port calls for the Kitty Hawk, its five escort ships, the two minesweepers and the scheduled upcoming Christmas port visit of the Reuben James, a frigate.
It also has appeared to zigzag in its limited statements. The White House said Wednesday Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told President Bush the port denials were due to a "misunderstanding," but Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao later said such reports were not true.
Some experts said the Foreign Ministry might be out of the loop, as it appeared to be in January when a Chinese missile knocked an aging weather satellite out of the sky, drawing U.S. condemnation. The Foreign Ministry seemed unaware of the test.
"It suggests that there may be a lack of coordination (within the Chinese government)," Shirk said.
(e-mail: tjohnson(at)mcclatchydc.com)
McClatchy Newspapers 2007
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/22410.html
<font size="5"><center>
US and Chinese navies face off in South China Sea</font size><font size="4">
• Pentagon claims ship was surrounded in international waters
• Chinese sailors strip to underwear as US vessel sprays hoses in defence</font size></center>
The USNS Impeccable (U.S. Navy)
guardian.co.uk,
By Tania Branigan
Monday 9 March 2009
China and America have been drawn into a rare confrontation on the high seas, it emerged today, when the Pentagon accused Chinese ships of manoeuvring dangerously close to a US navy vessel.
The US intends to protest to the Chinese military attache in Washington after Sunday's incident, which followed several days of what US defence officials called "increasingly aggressive" acts by Chinese ships.
At one point, the Pentagon said, the US vessel Impeccable sprayed one ship with water from fire hoses to force it away. The Chinese came within eight metres of the American ship, the Pentagon said, calling the manoeuvre "an apparent co-ordinated effort to harass the US ocean surveillance ship while it was conducting routine operations in international waters".
The vessels were in the South China Sea, about 75 miles south of Hainan Island. No one at the Chinese foreign ministry was available for comment tonight.
Earlier, the official newspaper China Daily carried remarks from the navy's deputy chief of staff, who said the force's growth did not pose a threat to others.
In an interview at the weekend, Major General Zhang Deshun told the newspaper: "Even when the navy has its aircraft carriers one day, our national defence strategy will remain purely defensive.
"The Chinese navy pursues peace and safeguards the security of the country."
The Pentagon spoke of its ship being surrounded. "The Chinese vessels surrounded USNS Impeccable, two of them closing to within 50ft [16 metres], waving Chinese flags and telling Impeccable to leave the area," a statement said.
"Because the vessels' intentions were not known, Impeccable sprayed its fire hoses at one of the vessels in order to protect itself," it said. "The Chinese crew members disrobed to their underwear and continued closing to within 25ft."
The Chinese navy has drawn increasing scrutiny since it joined the international fleet battling Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden – its first overseas mission since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.
Zhang added: "Some foreign media saw it as an opportunity to hype so-called 'China threat'. In fact, China is doing exactly what other countries are doing sending ships there: to protect [their] national interests."
He said China's plans to build aircraft carriers, which have also drawn attention, were "strategically very common" for a big country with a long coastline.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/09/naval-row-china-america
US and Chinese navies face off in South China Sea</font size><font size="4">
• Pentagon claims ship was surrounded in international waters
• Chinese sailors strip to underwear as US vessel sprays hoses in defence</font size></center>
The USNS Impeccable (U.S. Navy)
guardian.co.uk,
By Tania Branigan
Monday 9 March 2009
China and America have been drawn into a rare confrontation on the high seas, it emerged today, when the Pentagon accused Chinese ships of manoeuvring dangerously close to a US navy vessel.
The US intends to protest to the Chinese military attache in Washington after Sunday's incident, which followed several days of what US defence officials called "increasingly aggressive" acts by Chinese ships.
At one point, the Pentagon said, the US vessel Impeccable sprayed one ship with water from fire hoses to force it away. The Chinese came within eight metres of the American ship, the Pentagon said, calling the manoeuvre "an apparent co-ordinated effort to harass the US ocean surveillance ship while it was conducting routine operations in international waters".
The vessels were in the South China Sea, about 75 miles south of Hainan Island. No one at the Chinese foreign ministry was available for comment tonight.
Earlier, the official newspaper China Daily carried remarks from the navy's deputy chief of staff, who said the force's growth did not pose a threat to others.
In an interview at the weekend, Major General Zhang Deshun told the newspaper: "Even when the navy has its aircraft carriers one day, our national defence strategy will remain purely defensive.
"The Chinese navy pursues peace and safeguards the security of the country."
The Pentagon spoke of its ship being surrounded. "The Chinese vessels surrounded USNS Impeccable, two of them closing to within 50ft [16 metres], waving Chinese flags and telling Impeccable to leave the area," a statement said.
"Because the vessels' intentions were not known, Impeccable sprayed its fire hoses at one of the vessels in order to protect itself," it said. "The Chinese crew members disrobed to their underwear and continued closing to within 25ft."
The Chinese navy has drawn increasing scrutiny since it joined the international fleet battling Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden – its first overseas mission since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.
Zhang added: "Some foreign media saw it as an opportunity to hype so-called 'China threat'. In fact, China is doing exactly what other countries are doing sending ships there: to protect [their] national interests."
He said China's plans to build aircraft carriers, which have also drawn attention, were "strategically very common" for a big country with a long coastline.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/09/naval-row-china-america
<font size="5"><center>
White House Response:
US will operate in South China Sea</font size></center>
The Associated Press
Monday, March 9, 2009; 2:01 PM
WASHINGTON -- The White House says it expects China to respect international law, in particular for vessels operating in the South China Sea.
The Pentagon says five Chinese ships shadowed and maneuvered dangerously close to a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday the United States will continue to operate in those international waters. And he says the Chinese must observe international law. Gibbs says the U.S. has protested the action.
Defense officials in the administration said the incident Sunday followed several days of "increasingly aggressive" acts by Chinese ships in the region.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/09/AR2009030901533.html
White House Response:
US will operate in South China Sea</font size></center>
The Associated Press
Monday, March 9, 2009; 2:01 PM
WASHINGTON -- The White House says it expects China to respect international law, in particular for vessels operating in the South China Sea.
The Pentagon says five Chinese ships shadowed and maneuvered dangerously close to a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday the United States will continue to operate in those international waters. And he says the Chinese must observe international law. Gibbs says the U.S. has protested the action.
Defense officials in the administration said the incident Sunday followed several days of "increasingly aggressive" acts by Chinese ships in the region.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/09/AR2009030901533.html
If this would have been a destroyer would they have been as nice and sprayed them with a hose or would they have launched a missile at them?
After the Chinese sub popped up in the middle of the fleet a few months ago and now this, all you can do is ask what is next?
How much longer are they going to provoke trigger happy captains that live for this type of shit?
After the Chinese sub popped up in the middle of the fleet a few months ago and now this, all you can do is ask what is next?
How much longer are they going to provoke trigger happy captains that live for this type of shit?
Obama sends US navy to intimidate china after they found US spy ship in Chinese water
A potential conflict was brewing last night in the South China Sea after President Obama dispatched heavily armed American destroyers to the scene of a naval standoff between the US and China at the weekend.
Mr Obama’s decision to send an armed escort for US surveillance ships in the area follows the aggressive and co-ordinated manoeuvres of five Chinese boats on Sunday. They harassed and nea More..rly collided with an unarmed American vessel.
Washington accused the Chinese ships of moving directly in front of the US Navy surveillance ship Impeccable, forcing its crew to take emergency action, and to deploy a high-pressure water hose to deter the Chinese ships. Formal protests were lodged with Beijing after the incident.
On a day that Mr Obama and his senior officials met the Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, in Washington, Beijing showed no sign of backing down. Its military chiefs accused the unarmed US Navy ship of being on a spying mission.
The US keeps a close eye on China’s arsenal, including its expanding fleet of submarines in the area. Washington says that the confrontation occurred in international waters, but Beijing claims nearly all the South China Sea as its own, putting it in conflict with five other nations that have claims over different parts of the waters.
The episode complicated fragile military relations between the US and China, which appeared to have improved after the two held defence talks in Beijing last month.
Mr Obama yesterday urged more military dialogue with China to avoid similar incidents after talks with Mr Yang, the White House said. “The President also stressed the importance of raising the level and frequency of military-to-military dialogue,” it said.
A hotline was established between the Chinese Defence Ministry and the Pentagon in April last year, but it was not used during or after Sunday’s standoff, defence officials said. The US Government immediately protested to Chinese authorities after the incident, about 75 miles south of Hainan Island.
Beijing has rejected the US account and demanded that the United States cease what it calls illegal activities in the South China Sea. The Chinese maintain the area is part of the country’s exclusive economic zone.
Washington insists that the area is part of international waters and that US ships have a legal right to operate there.
A potential conflict was brewing last night in the South China Sea after President Obama dispatched heavily armed American destroyers to the scene of a naval standoff between the US and China at the weekend.
Mr Obama’s decision to send an armed escort for US surveillance ships in the area follows the aggressive and co-ordinated manoeuvres of five Chinese boats on Sunday. They harassed and nea More..rly collided with an unarmed American vessel.
Washington accused the Chinese ships of moving directly in front of the US Navy surveillance ship Impeccable, forcing its crew to take emergency action, and to deploy a high-pressure water hose to deter the Chinese ships. Formal protests were lodged with Beijing after the incident.
On a day that Mr Obama and his senior officials met the Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, in Washington, Beijing showed no sign of backing down. Its military chiefs accused the unarmed US Navy ship of being on a spying mission.
The US keeps a close eye on China’s arsenal, including its expanding fleet of submarines in the area. Washington says that the confrontation occurred in international waters, but Beijing claims nearly all the South China Sea as its own, putting it in conflict with five other nations that have claims over different parts of the waters.
The episode complicated fragile military relations between the US and China, which appeared to have improved after the two held defence talks in Beijing last month.
Mr Obama yesterday urged more military dialogue with China to avoid similar incidents after talks with Mr Yang, the White House said. “The President also stressed the importance of raising the level and frequency of military-to-military dialogue,” it said.
A hotline was established between the Chinese Defence Ministry and the Pentagon in April last year, but it was not used during or after Sunday’s standoff, defence officials said. The US Government immediately protested to Chinese authorities after the incident, about 75 miles south of Hainan Island.
Beijing has rejected the US account and demanded that the United States cease what it calls illegal activities in the South China Sea. The Chinese maintain the area is part of the country’s exclusive economic zone.
Washington insists that the area is part of international waters and that US ships have a legal right to operate there.
Re: Obama sends US navy to intimidate china after they found US spy ship in Chinese w
<font size="5"><center>
Why did China choose now
to surround a U.S. warship?</font size></center>
McClatchy Newspapers
By Tim Johnson
BEIJING — By confronting a U.S. surveillance ship off its coast this week, China appears:
China lashed out at Washington on Tuesday over the weekend incident, in which five Chinese ships confronted the Impeccable, a 281-foot U.S. submarine surveillance vessel, in what the Pentagon described as reckless and unprofessional behavior.
"The U.S. claim is totally inaccurate, confuses right and wrong and is absolutely unacceptable to China," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.
Ma said U.S. naval ships must ask China's permission anytime they sailed within its exclusive economic zone, a 200-nautical-mile zone off its shores. The claim amounted to an assertive attempt to bar U.S. Navy vessels from approaching China's shores, even affecting transit of the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
Ma said the USNS Impeccable "broke relevant international law, and Chinese laws and regulations, and engaged in activities in China's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea without China's permission."
He urged Washington to "take active measures to avoid similar incidents in the future."
International Law Argument Weak
Some legal experts say that international law provides exclusive use only within the 12-mile territorial waters off countries' shores, and that foreign ships have free passage through the broader exclusive economic zones.
"So long as the ships in this instance were transiting the EEZ outside the territorial waters, it would not appear that China's position has legal foundation," said Lester Ross, a lawyer with experience in international law at the Beijing office of the law firm WilmerHale. "I think it's a substantial stretch for China to maintain this position."
The Pentagon said the "harassment" of the Impeccable, a towering twin-hulled vessel, occurred Sunday 75 nautical miles south of Hainan Island. It identified the Chinese boats as a naval intelligence-gathering ship, a Bureau of Maritime Fisheries Patrol vessel, an oceanographic patrol vessel and two small trawlers, and added that one vessel had maneuvered dangerously close to the U.S. ship.
China's Secret Underwater Naval Base;
Paralell Incident in the Early Days of Bush
China is expanding a naval base for attack and ballistic missile submarines, which reportedly includes underwater tunnels for protection, on Hainan Island's southeast side.
The conflict has a parallel with an incident in the early days of the administration of aianHainformer President George W. Bush, which led to heightened Sino-U.S. frictions.
On April 1, 2001, two Chinese J-8 fighter jets intercepted a U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance aircraft that was 70 miles off Hainan Island, resulting in a collision with one of them, forcing it into the sea. The EP-3 made an emergency landing on Hainan, where China kept it captive for three months, long after the 24 crew members were released.
As in that incident, this week's scrap triggered heated reactions among ordinary Chinese who were incensed by the U.S. surveillance of its shores and proud of China's forceful action.
"What happened proves that whoever has stronger fists, his word is truth," an Internet user from Zhengzhou in Henan province posted on the Web site163.com.
Ross said that such military confrontations could stoke nationalism in both countries.
"There is a risk that doing something like this can inflame public opinion in the United States as well as China," he said.
Other Incidents
The Pentagon said the incident was only one of a half-dozen "increasingly aggressive" acts against the Impeccable and a sister ship, the Victorious — which included flybys by Chinese surveillance planes — since last Wednesday.
U.S. naval ships and China's sizable submarine fleet sometimes play cat and mouse as they take each other's measure. In October 2006, a Chinese submarine stalked the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier near Hawaii and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes before being detected.
In November 2007, China canceled a port call by the Kitty Hawk and several escort ships in Hong Kong. In response, the Pentagon ordered the carrier group to sail through the choppy, shallow Taiwan Strait, the first time that an American carrier group had made the transit since 2002.
China voiced "grave concern" about the passage but didn't claim at that time that U.S. naval ships had to stay outside the 200-mile limit.
The Taiwan Strait, which is barely 100 miles wide at one point, is a potential military flash point. Mainland China claims Taiwan as a renegade province, and says it has the right to seize control of the independently governed island.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/63656.html
<font size="5"><center>
Why did China choose now
to surround a U.S. warship?</font size></center>
McClatchy Newspapers
By Tim Johnson
BEIJING — By confronting a U.S. surveillance ship off its coast this week, China appears:
- to have sought to enforce ambitious maritime territorial claims; and
- to have tested the mettle of the new U.S. administration.
China lashed out at Washington on Tuesday over the weekend incident, in which five Chinese ships confronted the Impeccable, a 281-foot U.S. submarine surveillance vessel, in what the Pentagon described as reckless and unprofessional behavior.
"The U.S. claim is totally inaccurate, confuses right and wrong and is absolutely unacceptable to China," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.
Ma said U.S. naval ships must ask China's permission anytime they sailed within its exclusive economic zone, a 200-nautical-mile zone off its shores. The claim amounted to an assertive attempt to bar U.S. Navy vessels from approaching China's shores, even affecting transit of the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
Ma said the USNS Impeccable "broke relevant international law, and Chinese laws and regulations, and engaged in activities in China's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea without China's permission."
He urged Washington to "take active measures to avoid similar incidents in the future."
International Law Argument Weak
Some legal experts say that international law provides exclusive use only within the 12-mile territorial waters off countries' shores, and that foreign ships have free passage through the broader exclusive economic zones.
"So long as the ships in this instance were transiting the EEZ outside the territorial waters, it would not appear that China's position has legal foundation," said Lester Ross, a lawyer with experience in international law at the Beijing office of the law firm WilmerHale. "I think it's a substantial stretch for China to maintain this position."
The Pentagon said the "harassment" of the Impeccable, a towering twin-hulled vessel, occurred Sunday 75 nautical miles south of Hainan Island. It identified the Chinese boats as a naval intelligence-gathering ship, a Bureau of Maritime Fisheries Patrol vessel, an oceanographic patrol vessel and two small trawlers, and added that one vessel had maneuvered dangerously close to the U.S. ship.
China's Secret Underwater Naval Base;
Paralell Incident in the Early Days of Bush
China is expanding a naval base for attack and ballistic missile submarines, which reportedly includes underwater tunnels for protection, on Hainan Island's southeast side.
The conflict has a parallel with an incident in the early days of the administration of aianHainformer President George W. Bush, which led to heightened Sino-U.S. frictions.
On April 1, 2001, two Chinese J-8 fighter jets intercepted a U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance aircraft that was 70 miles off Hainan Island, resulting in a collision with one of them, forcing it into the sea. The EP-3 made an emergency landing on Hainan, where China kept it captive for three months, long after the 24 crew members were released.
As in that incident, this week's scrap triggered heated reactions among ordinary Chinese who were incensed by the U.S. surveillance of its shores and proud of China's forceful action.
"What happened proves that whoever has stronger fists, his word is truth," an Internet user from Zhengzhou in Henan province posted on the Web site163.com.
Ross said that such military confrontations could stoke nationalism in both countries.
"There is a risk that doing something like this can inflame public opinion in the United States as well as China," he said.
Other Incidents
The Pentagon said the incident was only one of a half-dozen "increasingly aggressive" acts against the Impeccable and a sister ship, the Victorious — which included flybys by Chinese surveillance planes — since last Wednesday.
U.S. naval ships and China's sizable submarine fleet sometimes play cat and mouse as they take each other's measure. In October 2006, a Chinese submarine stalked the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier near Hawaii and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes before being detected.
In November 2007, China canceled a port call by the Kitty Hawk and several escort ships in Hong Kong. In response, the Pentagon ordered the carrier group to sail through the choppy, shallow Taiwan Strait, the first time that an American carrier group had made the transit since 2002.
China voiced "grave concern" about the passage but didn't claim at that time that U.S. naval ships had to stay outside the 200-mile limit.
The Taiwan Strait, which is barely 100 miles wide at one point, is a potential military flash point. Mainland China claims Taiwan as a renegade province, and says it has the right to seize control of the independently governed island.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/63656.html
U.S. warship to sail near islands
built by China in the South China Sea
USS Lassen to challenge China's Spratly Islands claim 'within hours'
The guided missile destroyer USS Lassen (DDG 82) underway in the rough seas of the East China Sea. Lassen is part of the USS
Carl Vinson (CVN 70) Battle Group.
WASHINGTON — The Navy destroyer USS Lassen will challenge China’s 12-mile sea claims around a controversial South China Sea island within hours, a U.S. defense official confirmed Monday.
The Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, is already underway, conducting exercises in the South China Sea. It will transit within 12 miles of a manmade island that China has rapidly built up among a chain of elevated coral reefs, islands and land formations known as the Spratly Islands.
That buildup, which includes an airstrip and appears to be for military purposes, has increased tensions between China and many of the United States’ Pacific allies.
Malaysia Armed Forces chief Zulkefli Mohd Zin last week heavily criticized the Chinese buildup, calling it "unwarranted provocation."
The Lassen will have overhead watch from a U.S. maritime patrol craft, a U.S. defense official said on background because he was not authorized to discuss the movement. The same official said the movement would take place “within hours.”
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has regularly challenged the Chinese territorial claim of the islands and the waters surrounding it. Carter has said the United States “will fly, sail, and operate wherever the international law permits, and we will do that at the times and places of our choosing, and there’s no exception to that.”
According to a maritime report by the Department of Defense, there are more than 200 Spratly land features, though that figure varies based on how geographers count them. Vietnam occupies 48 of the Spratly Islands, Taiwan occupies one, the Philippines occupies eight, Malaysia occupies five and China occupies eight, according to the report.
China, Taiwan and Vietnam each claim all of the Spratly land features.
Carter has said the United States is not taking a position on which nations have sovereignty over the islands. Every nation can claim up to 12 nautical miles from its coast as sovereign territory. But it’s China’s rapid buildup of an airstrip on the Fiery Cross Reef that has generated the most concern.
The Lassen’s home port is Yokosuka, Japan, and last week made a port stop in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia after spending the previous four weeks conducting maritime patrols throughout the South China Sea.
On the first half of their patrol, the Lassen reported “numerous interactions occurred while at sea with foreign vessels, including the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy Jiangkai-class frigates,” according to a Navy news release. “Lassen used the codes for unplanned encounters at sea and standard bridge-to-bridge communication to ensure safe and professional navigation.”
The Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, is already underway, conducting exercises in the South China Sea. It will transit within 12 miles of a manmade island that China has rapidly built up among a chain of elevated coral reefs, islands and land formations known as the Spratly Islands.
That buildup, which includes an airstrip and appears to be for military purposes, has increased tensions between China and many of the United States’ Pacific allies.
Malaysia Armed Forces chief Zulkefli Mohd Zin last week heavily criticized the Chinese buildup, calling it "unwarranted provocation."
The Lassen will have overhead watch from a U.S. maritime patrol craft, a U.S. defense official said on background because he was not authorized to discuss the movement. The same official said the movement would take place “within hours.”
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has regularly challenged the Chinese territorial claim of the islands and the waters surrounding it. Carter has said the United States “will fly, sail, and operate wherever the international law permits, and we will do that at the times and places of our choosing, and there’s no exception to that.”
According to a maritime report by the Department of Defense, there are more than 200 Spratly land features, though that figure varies based on how geographers count them. Vietnam occupies 48 of the Spratly Islands, Taiwan occupies one, the Philippines occupies eight, Malaysia occupies five and China occupies eight, according to the report.
China, Taiwan and Vietnam each claim all of the Spratly land features.
Carter has said the United States is not taking a position on which nations have sovereignty over the islands. Every nation can claim up to 12 nautical miles from its coast as sovereign territory. But it’s China’s rapid buildup of an airstrip on the Fiery Cross Reef that has generated the most concern.
The Lassen’s home port is Yokosuka, Japan, and last week made a port stop in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia after spending the previous four weeks conducting maritime patrols throughout the South China Sea.
On the first half of their patrol, the Lassen reported “numerous interactions occurred while at sea with foreign vessels, including the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy Jiangkai-class frigates,” according to a Navy news release. “Lassen used the codes for unplanned encounters at sea and standard bridge-to-bridge communication to ensure safe and professional navigation.”
http://www.stripes.com/news/uss-las...s-spratly-islands-claim-within-hours-1.375279
