A People’s Republic of China warship, identified by the US Indo-Pacific Command as PRC LY 132, crosses the path of US Navy destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (Picture: Reuters)
A Chinese warship came within 150 yards of hitting a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait.
The Chinese ship approached in ‘an unsafe manner’, US military official said of the incident on Saturday.
American and Canadian navies were engaged in a joint exercise in the strait separating Taiwan and China, when the Chinese warship cut directly in front of the US missile destroyer Chung-Hoon, stated the US Indo-Pacific Command. Chung-Hoon slowed down to prevent a collision.
Video footage shows a warship speed up to cut in front Chung-Hoon’s bow. Chung-Hoon wound up altering its course and slowing its speed, shows the clip broadcasted by the Canadian website Global News.
The USS Chung-Hoon observes a Chinese navy ship conduct what it called an ‘unsafe’ Chinese maneuver in the Taiwan Strait (Picture: AP)
The ‘closest point of approach was 150 yards and its actions violated the maritime “Rules of the Road” of safe passage in international waters’, stated the US command.
Meanwhile, China’s military blamed the US for ‘deliberately provoking risk’ by conducting the sailing exercise with Canada in the strait.
The region has been a point of tension between the US and China. China has claimed self-governing Taiwan, while the island insists it was never ruled by China. President Joe Biden has vowed to defend Taiwan if China invades it.
The US Navy destroyer USS Chung-Hoon was transiting the Taiwan Strait with the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Montreal (Picture: Reuters)
The Chinese warship cut in front of the US Navy destroyer on Saturday (Picture: Reuters)
The encounter in the seas happened just over a week after a Chinese J-16 fighter jet cut across a US RC-135 aircraft over the South China Sea and left it flying through its turbulence. The US command called the maneuver by China ‘unnecessarily aggressive’.
China responded by blaming US ‘provocation’ and claimed that the American aircraft ‘broke into’ its military training zone.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan in a prerecorded interview that aired on CNN on Sunday said the US seeks to maintain a ‘stable, cross-strait dynamic’ with China and Taiwan. He added that the US seeks to avoid conflict ‘that would end up cratering the global economy’.
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A Chinese warship approached an American Navy destroyer in ‘an unsafe manner’, according to the US command.