Posted on 12/13/2013 2:57:59 AM PST by markomalley
A Chinese naval vessel tried to force a U.S. guided missile warship to stop in international waters recently, causing a tense military standoff in the latest case of Chinese maritime harassment, according to defense officials.
The guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens, which recently took part in disaster relief operations in the Philippines, was confronted by Chinese warships in the South China Sea near Beijing’s new aircraft carrier Liaoning, according to officials familiar with the incident.
“On December 5th, while lawfully operating in international waters in the South China Sea, USS Cowpens and a PLA Navy vessel had an encounter that required maneuvering to avoid a collision,” a Navy official said.
“This incident underscores the need to ensure the highest standards of professional seamanship, including communications between vessels, to mitigate the risk of an unintended incident or mishap.”
A State Department official said the U.S. government issued protests to China in both Washington and Beijing in both diplomatic and military channels.
The Cowpens was conducting surveillance of the Liaoning at the time. The carrier had recently sailed from the port of Qingdao on the northern Chinese coast into the South China Sea.
According to the officials, the run-in began after a Chinese navy vessel sent a hailing warning and ordered the Cowpens to stop. The cruiser continued on its course and refused the order because it was operating in international waters.
Then a Chinese tank landing ship sailed in front of the Cowpens and stopped, forcing the Cowpens to abruptly change course in what the officials said was a dangerous maneuver.
According to the officials, the Cowpens was conducting a routine operation done to exercise its freedom of navigation near the Chinese carrier when the incident occurred about a week ago.
The encounter was the type of incident that senior Pentagon officials recently warned could take place as a result of heightened tensions in the region over China’s declaration of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently called China’s new air defense zone destabilizing and said it increased the risk of a military “miscalculation.”
China’s military forces in recent days have dispatched Su-30 and J-11 fighter jets, as well as KJ-2000 airborne warning and control aircraft, to the zone to monitor the airspace that is used frequently by U.S. and Japanese military surveillance aircraft.
The United States has said it does not recognize China’s ADIZ, as has Japan’s government.
Two U.S. B-52 bombers flew through the air zone last month but were not shadowed by Chinese interceptor jets.
Chinese naval and air forces also have been pressing Japan in the East China Sea over Tokyo’s purchase a year ago of several uninhabited Senkaku Islands located north of Taiwan and south of Okinawa.
China is claiming the islands, which it calls the Diaoyu. They are believed to contain large undersea reserves of natural gas and oil.
The Liaoning, China’s first carrier that was refitted from an old Soviet carrier, and four warships recently conducted their first training maneuvers in the South China Sea. The carrier recently docked at the Chinese naval port of Hainan on the South China Sea.
Defense officials have said China’s imposition of the ADIZ is aimed primarily at curbing surveillance flights in the zone, which China’s military regards as a threat to its military secrets.
The U.S. military conducts surveillance flights with EP-3 aircraft and long-range RQ-4 Global Hawk drones.
In addition to the Liaoning, Chinese warships in the flotilla include two missile destroyers, the Shenyang and the Shijiazhuang, and two missile frigates, the Yantai and the Weifang.
Rick Fisher, a China military affairs expert, said it is likely that the Chinese deliberately staged the incident as part of a strategy of pressuring the United States.
“They can afford to lose an LST [landing ship] as they have about 27 of them, but they are also usually armed with one or more twin 37 millimeter cannons, which at close range could heavily damage a lightly armored U.S. Navy destroyer,” said Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.
Most Chinese Navy large combat ships would be out-ranged by the 127-millimeter guns deployed on U.S. cruisers, except China’s Russian-made Sovremenny-class ships and Beijing’s new Type 052D destroyers that are armed with 130-millimeter guns.
The encounter appears to be part of a pattern of Chinese political signaling that it will not accept the presence of American military power in its East Asian theater of influence, Fisher said.
“China has spent the last 20 years building up its Navy and now feels that it can use it to obtain its political objectives,” he said.
Fisher said that since early 2012 China has gone on the offensive in both the South China and East China Seas.
“In this early stage of using its newly acquired naval power, China is posturing and bullying, but China is also looking for a fight, a battle that will cow the Americans, the Japanese, and the Filipinos,” he said.
To maintain stability in the face of Chinese military assertiveness, Fisher said the United States and Japan should seek an armed peace in the region by heavily fortifying the Senkaku Islands and the rest of the island chain they are part of.
“The U.S. and Japan should also step up their rearmament of the Philippines,” Fisher said.
The Cowpens incident is the most recent example of Chinese naval aggressiveness toward U.S. ships.
The U.S. intelligence-gathering ship, USNS Impeccable, came under Chinese naval harassment from a China Maritime Surveillance ship, part of Beijing’s quasi-military maritime patrol craft, in June.
During that incident, the Chinese ship warned the Navy ship it was operating illegally despite sailing in international waters. The Chinese demanded that the ship first obtain permission before sailing in the area that was more than 100 miles from China’s coast.
The U.S. military has been stepping up surveillance of China’s naval forces, including the growing submarine fleet, as part of the U.S. policy of rebalancing forces to the Pacific.
The Impeccable was harassed in March 2009 by five Chinese ships that followed it and sprayed it with water hoses in an effort to thwart its operations.
A second spy ship, the USNS Victorious, also came under Chinese maritime harassment several years ago.
Adm. Samuel Locklear, when asked last summer about increased Chinese naval activities near Guam and Hawaii in retaliation for U.S. ship-based spying on China, said the dispute involves different interpretations of controlled waters.
Locklear said in a meeting with reporters in July, “We believe the U.S. position is that those activities are less constrained than what the Chinese believe.”
China is seeking to control large areas of international waters—claiming they are part of its United Nations-defined economic exclusion zone—that Locklear said cover “most of the major sea lines of communication” near China and are needed to remain free for trade and shipping.
Locklear, who is known for his conciliatory views toward the Chinese military, sought to play down recent disputes. When asked if the Chinese activities were troubling, he said: “I would say it’s not provocative certainly. I’d say that in the Asia-Pacific, in the areas that are closer to the Chinese homeland, that we have been able to conduct operations around each other in a very professional and increasingly professional manner.”
The Pentagon and U.S. Pacific Command have sought to develop closer ties to the Chinese military as part of the Obama administration’s Asia pivot policies.
However, China’s military has shown limited interest in closer ties.
China’s state-controlled news media regularly report that the United States is seeking to defeat China by encircling the country with enemies while promoting dissidents within who seek the ouster of the communist regime.
The Obama administration has denied it is seeking to “contain” China and has insisted it wants continued close economic and diplomatic relations.
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to seek a new type of major power relationship during a summit in California earlier this year. However, the exact nature of the new relationship remains unclear.
That rapid-fire Navy 5” on the foredeck of the Cowpens shouldn’t need more than 30 seconds to minimize the threat from four Chicom tin cans plus the LST. And don’t forget there’s a little buddy Fast Attack sub running nearby on the Cowpens flank. That Fast Attack can get off four shots quicker than the Commie commander can write “kissmyassgoodbye” in Chinese. If a shot gets fired I expect Locklear can kiss his comfy Chicom-sucking billet to vanish is a spray of bird’s nest soup. Those Chicom cans may not know they are already targeted and really, really shouldn’t do anything dis-courteous.
Starting back in the 1960’s we started fitting our surface ships with a thing called the Countermeasure Washdown System. I helped build the first ones. It works like a car wash for ships. Our ships are made to be fully operational in an industrial strength rain storm. Squirting our guys with a couple fire hoses has got to produce a great big WTF?
Let me give you the reverse. The government says I cannot sell you my gun because it passed a law. That’s not liberty. Free trade (keep in mind that the US of A was set up as a giant free trade zone, hence the Commerce Clause) means I get to sell whatever I want and I get to buy whatever I want. That’s liberty.
Now comes my neighbor and he’s selling his lawnmower. It is a good price and he takes $25 American for it. That’s free trade. Who is richer or more powerful or anything else doesn’t matter. That trade is completed. He got what he wanted and I got what I wanted.
There is no trade deficit. He never has to buy a thing from me and I am still at liberty. Nothing has been lost.
You’re confusing the economic prosperity of moving away from low level manufacturing to higher level manufacturing and invention. Would you rather be making the widget or getting all the royalties from it?
We don’t farm anymore either and that’s a sign of prosperity. At the turn of the last century 40% of employment was on farms now it’s down to 3% and no one is starving. That’s an improvement. Do you see it now?
BTW my neighbor is a Red Chinese. ;-]
Your brain is not capable of understaning anything about me…….or economics.
I’m sorry for you. Arrogant and ignroant is no way to go thru life…..now go back to your Richard Trumka gay porn festival….
Except our citizens largely can’t take advantage of free trade. its the multinational corporations run by foreigners that benefit from free trade the most.
See this video and get back to me……you really need an economic primer, on supply and demand, the pricing impact in the market, etc.
It’s only two minutes, and you’ll know 1000X more about econ than you do now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Gppi-O3a8
Seriously, if you think only “multinational corporations” blah blah balh….you’re occupy wall street material…...
Panasonic
Vizio
Sharp
Toshiba
All make TVs in the US. DOH!! betcha that hurts
….and Wal Mart stores have no shoppers?????? just rich multinational corportate bosses…..LOL!!!!!
Boy that was predictable.
How will people buy anything without a job?
Free trade is all about transfer of wealth, out of America and into other countries.
Nothing is more expensive than the way we manufacture, off shoring to slaves to save a few pennies on the dollar and losing the republic in the bargain, I HATE YOU OPEN TRADE OPEN BORDER A$$HATS with a passion.
Obama will bow and apologize.
You big anger. You little intellect. Bad combo.
And once again, you have now accused me of a fourth item that’s absurd and baseless, proving once again you of tiny intellect.
Possibly, certainly not out of the realm of reality, but many of China’s men are in the 35 year old range and no longer have that nesting feeling. They want money and prosperity. They seek a better life and children keep them from it to some degree. I think the lack of women issue has been overblown to some extent and while what you say about sending men off to war to divert attention is very true, I think China is looking to stretch its economic muscles, including military sales, as much as it may want to stretch its military muscles. The Chinese do encourage their people to live in foreign lands, send back ideas and technologies, and integrate; of course, as long as all that benefits China.
“China isn’t a rising power”-—let me split that hair just a bit with you. The waning I see is with the Peeeoples Party of commies. there are plenty of hard working non-political chinese who can get along just fine with out the commie crowd in Peeking. The CPCC does indeed see trouble coming and that would explain the outside instigating-—happens every time a crooked bunch of leaders wants to divert attention from its own failings-—in any country.
By the way can you condemn the Chinese for their bellicose military nature? You haven't done that yet.
I stand with Reagan, Friedman, Sowell, Palin, Williams, Santelli, Kudlow, Limbaugh, Levin….
You stand with Richard Trumka.
I win. You lose. QED.
It’s weird but the chickens are actually American chickens being sent to China for processing. I do not want to catch a ride on the USS Chickenship.
Oh Really. What state?
I condemn China for a lot of things…..but this is where you really prove that your reading comprehension is less than kindergarten….this issue us NOT ABOUT CHINA….only your obsession is. I’ve said about a thousand times that the crap China pulls is nothing our elected officials can really address. That is not condoning. I don’t get to vote in China.
You’ve said the dumbest four things ever said in the history of FR on this thread….and I’ve tried to correct them as you go……
No, America loses
Pretty obvious. Americans are getting poorer and Chinese are buying lamborghini’s.
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