A Chinese vessel approached within 150 yards (137 metres) of a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait in “an unsafe manner,” according to US military sources, as China accused the US of “deliberately provoking risk” in the region.
The US and Canadian navies were conducting a joint exercise in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island of Taiwan and China, on Saturday when a Chinese ship cut in front of the US guided-missile destroyer Chung-Hoon, forcing it to slow down to avoid a collision, according to the US Indo-Pacific Command.
Since the defeated Republic of China government retreated to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its territory. Taiwan’s government claims that the PRC has never dominated the island, and US President Joe Biden has stated that the US would support Taiwan if China invaded.
China’s military chastised the United States and Canada for “deliberately provoking risk” during a rarely combined sailing across the Taiwan Strait.
The Chung-Hoon and Canada’s Montreal were on a “routine” crossing of the strait when the Chinese ship cut in front of the American ship, according to the US Indo-Pacific Command.
The Chinese ship’s “closest point of approach was 150 yards and its actions violated the maritime ‘Rules of the Road’ of safe passage in international waters,” the US command said.
Video footage broadcast by Canadian website Global News showed the close encounter between the ships.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The maritime encounter was the latest close call between the Chinese and US military. On May 26, a Chinese fighter jet carried out an “unnecessarily aggressive” maneuver near a US military plane over the South China Sea in international airspace, the US Indo-Pacific Command said on Tuesday.
The spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, did not comment on the specifics of the jet incident, but said the US had “frequently deployed aircraft and vessels for close-in reconnaissance on China, which poses a serious danger to China’s national security.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a pre-recorded interview that aired on CNN on Sunday that the US is seeking to maintain the “stable, cross-strait dynamic” between China and Taiwan and avoid a conflict “that would end up cratering the global economy.”
The interview for “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on CNN took place on Friday.
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu told Asia’s top security summit on Sunday that conflict with the United States would be an “unbearable disaster” but that his country sought dialogue over confrontation.
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