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Five Chinese ships have maneuvered dangerously close to an unarmed 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 maneuvered” 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. 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). 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.
Do “unarmed” US Naval Ships actually exist? I’ll bet there is more to this story that will never be told.
Sending out unarmed ships is like sending out unarmed soldiers. It is a stupid thing to do. The man at the top needs his butt kicked.
We don’t have Bush to kick around any more so I guess that leaves Obama to blame.
It’s for certain screaming at or about Bush is a waste of time because he can’t fix it.
American imperialist at work again. It’s not China testing Obama, it’s American military testing Chinese waters. And good for the Chinese to tell them that they’re not welcome to snoop around at places they don’t belong.
How would you like it if Chinese send a navy ship 75 miles off of San Diego naval base?
You Americans are such hypocrites. Take a effin good look in the mirror. Don’t start another war you can’t possibly finish.
The whole point of doing surveilance that way is so they can’t be accused of acting provocably with ship-borne armaments (since they aren’t carrying any). In the case of the spy plane in 2001, that was another issue where a Chinese pilot acted aggressively and got too close. They’ll keep testing each other.
# 14 JWMcGregor said:
“What would the US Government think if the Chinese were trolling for US subs just off the US coast!”
Who says they’re not?
– – – – –
# 33 Angus said, in part:
“How would you like it if Chinese send a navy ship 75 miles off of San Diego naval base?”
To quote Ringo Starr, “I’m certain that it happens all the time.” So what? This is likely being pushed by the North Koreans, partly in response to the annual US/South Korea joint War Games. Both the Chinese and North Korean military suffer badly from a Napoleon complex.
The Soviets used to fly out and harass us all the time on carriers in the Pacific with their Bear bombers.
Who doing a WestPac doesn’t remember “Overflight Warning Yellow” (or red or green) being called out over the 1MC. It’s the reason we always kept loaded fighters tied to the cats.
When they travel 3 or 4 thousand miles, 75 miles off the coast doesn’t seem like a big deal.
China claims 200 miles out as territorial waters, the US says it is 12. So long as it has the capability it will continue to operate surveillance and freedom of navigation exercises. But Obomba is going to gut the military so we won’t have to worry about this much longer.
all kidding aside, i severely doubt
this story reflects the truth in
any way.
sounds like a setup/cover story
to sell to the public so as to warm
us up to a much bigger play that
is planned to play start playing
out out just ahead.
(or misdirection to get us to take our
eyes off the ball.)
besides, what idiot thought it was
a good idea to bite the hand that is
virtually feeding us? -or to provoke
china and give them reason to shun us..?
they are practically the only entity
left with the cash to continue to
back our insatiable debt.
the current all time high levels of
corruption in our government and
privatized military leaves one very
little faith or trust in
anything they say or do.
we have been turned into a paper tiger, stripped bear of our -and now they are coming
for our bones.
no, i do not think one can trust
the face value of anything they say
anymore.
#27 summed it up pretty good as well.
#37, sounds,
Cat get your tongue?
🙂
After the latest Chinese threats, I would expect the Navy to park a carrier a little closer to the area.
The ship in question, USNS Impeccable is not a Navy war ship maned by military personal. It is a USNS United States Naval Ship, government owned but not military.
200 mile territorial waters? Would that include Taiwan? So if we extend our territorial waters to 200 miles would that mean we own Cuba or would they own us? The Demoncrats would probably say Cuba has a right to patrol Miami water, actually they would probably say they have a territorial right to Florida
We should realize that China believes that not only does Asia belong to it rightfully, but that they should be the center of world affairs, as in the Global Government Capital. Wonder how that’s going to square with Islam.
thats odd..were did my post go..?
-s
-luckily, i compose most of my posts in a
text editor to recover such, such
atrocities..! lol
all kidding aside, i severely doubt
this story reflects the truth in
any way.
sounds like a setup/cover story
to sell to the public so as to warm
us up to a much bigger play that
is planned to play start playing
out out just ahead.
(or misdirection to get us to take our
eyes off whats the ball.)
besides, what idiot thought it was
a good idea to bite the hand that is
virtually feeding us? -or to provoke
china and give them reason to shun us..?
they are practically the only entity
left with the cash to continue to
back our insatiable debt.
the current all time high levels of corruption in our
government and privatized military leaves
one very little faith or trust in
anything they say or do.
we have been turned into a paper tiger, stripped bear
-and now they are coming
for our bones.
…no, -no i do not think one can trust
the face value of anything they say
anymore.
#27 summed it up pretty good as well.
-s
::sigh::
(ofc, it might help if i actually
checked the grammar before posting)
-s
Come on Nuclear War!! We need the jobs here in US and we need the population numbers down! While we’re at it, nuclear war on Europe as well. And someone go and sniper those bad bad exec’s that are part of the economic crisis. 🙂
#not that i wholly disagree on at least the sentiment behind your comment , -but i dare say a modern nuclear war is something you never, ever, want to visit us.
-use thermobarics instead! 😀
-s
Good global war would solve most of their problems now. The “enemy” doesn’t matter, as last as it’ll last for few years, and cost a lot.
(by “their” I mean most of governments, including US and China).