Chinese ships 'harass' US vessel

[Cheetah786]

Five Chinese ships have manoeuvred dangerously close to a US navy vessel in the South China Sea, the US government has said.

US officials said the incident came after days of "increasingly aggressive" acts by Chinese ships.

These violated international law on respecting other users of the seas, a Pentagon spokesman said.

A protest was expected to be delivered to the Chinese military attache at the Pentagon on Monday.

The incident happened on Sunday as the USNS Impeccable was on routine operations in international waters 75 miles (120km) south of Hainan island, a US statement said.

The ships had "aggressively manoeuvred" around the Impeccable "in an apparent co-ordinated effort to harass the US ocean surveillance ship while it was conducting routine operations in international waters", according to the Pentagon.

Emergency stop

The US ship sprayed one Chinese vessel with water from fire hoses to try to force it away, it said.

But it said the Chinese crew stripped to their underwear and carried on approaching to within 25ft (8m).
The Pentagon identified the Chinese boats as a navy intelligence ship and four other vessels.

When the Impeccable radioed requesting a safe path to leave the area, two Chinese vessels dropped pieces of wood in its path, forcing the US ship to make an emergency stop, the Pentagon said.

"The unprofessional manoeuvres by Chinese vessels violated the requirement under international law to operate with due regard for the rights and safety of other lawful users of the ocean," said Pentagon spokesman Marine Maj Stewart Upton.

"We expect Chinese ships to act responsibly and refrain from provocative activities that could lead to miscalculation or a collision at sea," he said.

No immediate response from the Chinese government was reported
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Chinese ships 'harass' US vessel

 

[mDumb]

Untruthful report, rather the USNS harassing the PLAN submarines with its underwater listening devices.

 

[Fennecus]

The incident happened on Sunday as the USNS Impeccable was on routine operations in international waters 75 miles (120km) south of Hainan island, a US statement said.

Stop snooping around China's coastal waters.

Do you think the U.S. would take lightly to PLAN ships snooping around Guam even if they were in international waters?

 

[ajpirzada]

so US has started feelin the heat from her western neighbours

 

[BATMAN]

I remember in Past US vessel shot down one Iranian civil aircraft in response to similar so called harrasment or provocation.
The commander who issued the order ot shoot down the civilian aircraft killing all abroad was given clean chit by US courts.
This history indicates US law allow to shoot in reply at any targets of the respective country, which makes any such situation very dangerous development.

 

[ARSENAL6]

The BBC is well KNown for its Bias pro western reporting
Just recently the BBC suggested that the on going Afgan war was completl;y different to the Soviet invasion of Afganistan and that the Allied coalition might win this war this time round.

It is really incredible like the previos indicated
why was there a US ship floating around in China water
If this was the other way round The US would not had have it. Remeber the time when Chiness Fighters forced a US spy plane to land in China as it was flying near Chiness border. The Americans made a big hoo-ha , demanding its plane to be brought back .

 

[Cheetah786]

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Tuesday that a U.S. Navy ship involved in a confrontation with its fleet off the southern island of Hainan had violated international and Chinese laws.

Washington had urged China to observe international maritime rules after the Pentagon said five Chinese ships, including a naval vessel, harassed the USNS Impeccable in international waters on Sunday.

"The U.S. claims are gravely in contravention of the facts and confuse black and white and they are totally unacceptable to China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told a regular news briefing.

But the confrontation was unlikely to do lasting damage to ties between two countries as they combat the global economic slump, a Chinese analyst in Beijing said.

Global oil prices rose 3 percent on Monday and held above $47 a barrel on Tuesday, partly on jitters about tension between the world's top oil consumers.

Denny Roy, a U.S.-based expert on Asia-Pacific security, said the confrontation did not appear accidental, and was rather China's way of sending a message to Washington that it wanted respect for its growing military reach in the region.

"I don't think this happened spontaneously," said Roy, of the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, "No doubt it had the endorsement of central leaders in Beijing."

The latest row suggests Beijing will take a tougher stance as its naval ambitions grow, said analyst Shi Yinhong.

"The United States is present everywhere on the world's seas, but these kinds of incidents may grow as China's naval activities expand," Shi, an expert on regional security at Renmin University in Beijing, said.

The Chinese vessels "shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity" to the USNS Impeccable, an unarmed ocean surveillance vessel, with one ship coming within 25 feet, a U.S. Defense Department statement said.

Tropical Hainan, less than 100 km (60 miles) south of the mainland, hosts a Chinese naval base that houses ballistic missile submarines, according to independent analysts.

An unnamed spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington earlier denied the Chinese ships had violated maritime rules and said U.S. ships had been conducting illegal surveying, the website of Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television (news.ifeng.com) reported.

It said the incident happened 120 km (70 miles) south of the island.

Ma said there were laws about scientific research in Chinese waters.

The U.S. ship "violated the relevant international laws and Chinese laws and regulations," he said, urging the United States to halt such action. U.S. defense officials said the incident followed days of increasingly aggressive Chinese conduct in the area, including fly-bys by Chinese maritime surveillance planes.
It comes just weeks after the two sides resumed military talks, postponed in November after a U.S. announcement of arms sales to Taiwan, a self-ruled island China claims as its own.

And it echoes a stand-off in 2001 between U.S. and Chinese military forces after a U.S. spy plane made an emergency landing on Hainan after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet. China released 24 crew after a U.S. expression of regret.

GROWING MILITARY BUDGET

China's national parliament, now in annual session, is set to approve a military budget increase of 14.9 percent more than spending in 2008, bringing announced People's Liberation Army funds to 480.7 billion yuan ($70 billion). Many foreign experts believe its real budget is much higher.

Some of that extra money may go to developing China's first aircraft carrier -- the trophy ship of an ambitious sea power -- senior naval officers have recently suggested.

"Go and ask the Americans, ask their embassy," Vice Admiral Jin Mao, former Navy vice commander in chief, told Reuters on the sidelines of parliament when asked about the incident. "Ask their officials what their ship was doing in Chinese waters."

The Impeccable is one of five ocean surveillance ships that serve with the U.S. 7th Fleet, based in Yokosuka, Japan. The ships use low-frequency sound to search for undersea threats including submarines, a U.S. military official said.

A U.S. Defense Department spokesman said the Chinese vessels had surrounded the Impeccable, waving Chinese flags and telling the U.S. ship to leave. The Pentagon also described accounts of half a dozen other incidents dating back to March 4.

Oil prices rose on news of the jostling on Monday and stayed high on Tuesday, although analysts said it was hard to see how the tension could threaten oil supplies or inflate prices.

"I can see the geopolitical risk between two producing countries. But the U.S. and China are two major consumers. I don't know why oil prices would rise on that," said Tony Nunan, risk management manager at Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp.

The confrontation coincides with two sensitive anniversaries in Tibet, making China especially sensitive to outside scrutiny.

Analyst Shi said the seas off Hainan were important to China's projection of its influence with a modern naval fleet.

"The change is in China's attitude. This reflects the hardening line in Chinese foreign policy and the importance we attach to the strategic value of the South China Sea."

(Additional reporting by Ian Ransom in Beijing and David Morgan in Washington; Editing by Nick Macfie and Dean Yates)
China says U.S. naval ship broke the law | International | Reuters

I guess this is chinese way of saying Bug off