BEIJING – A Chinese warship sailed within yards of an American destroyer —forcing it to change course — in an “unsafe and unprofessional” encounteras the US vessel was in contested waters in the South China Sea, anofficial said Monday.
The USS Decatur guided-missile destroyer was conducting what the militarycalls a “freedom of navigation operation” Sunday, when it passed within 12nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson reefs in the remote Spratly Islands.
The 12-mile distance is commonly accepted as constituting the territorialwaters of a landmass.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, though Taiwan, thePhilippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it.Beijing claims all of the Spratlys and has built a number of militaryinstallations on the islands.
During the operation, a Chinese Luyang destroyer approached the USS Decaturin “an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the vicinity of Gaven Reef inthe South China Sea,” US Pacific Fleet spokesman Commander Nate Christensensaid.
The Chinese ship then conducted a series of “increasingly aggressivemaneuvers, and warned the Decatur to depart the area,” he added.The Chinese “destroyer approached within 45 yards (meters) of Decatur’sbow, after which Decatur maneuvered to prevent a collision.”
In a statement, the Chinese Ministry of Defense said that its ship had“given a warning to leave” to the vessel after it entered the area “withoutpermission.”
“The US has repeatedly sent warships into the territorial waters nearChinese reefs and islands in the South China Sea,” it said.
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The behavior “gravely threatens China’s sovereignty and security, gravelydamages relations between China and the US and their militaries, andgravely injures regional peace and stability.”US-Chinese relations have been strained on multiple levels since DonaldTrump became president in 2017.
A trade war launched by Trump has infuriated Beijing, as did hisauthorization of a $1.3 billion arms sale to Taiwan, which China considersa rebel province.
Washington last week enacted new tariffs against China covering another$200 billion of its imports.
China has taken a series of retaliatory measures, including scrapping a USwarship’s planned port visit to Hong Kong and canceling a meeting betweenthe head of the Chinese navy and his American counterpart.
On Monday, a US defense official said that security talks due to take placelater this month in Beijing between Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and hisChinese counterpart had been canceled.
