‘That was intentional’: Canada on Chinese warship’s close call with US destroyer in Taiwan Strait
A Chinese warship came within 150 yards (137 meters) of a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait in "an unsafe manner," US military officials said, as China blamed the United States for "deliberately provoking risk" in the region.
US and Canadian navies on Saturday (June 3) were conducting a joint exercise in the strait, which separates the island of Taiwan and China when the Chinese ship cut in front of the US guided-missile destroyer Chung-Hoon forcing it to slow down to avoid a collision, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.
The People's Republic of China (PRC) has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its territory since the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's communists. Taiwan's government says the PRC has never ruled the island and US President Joe Biden has said the US would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
China's military rebuked the United States and Canada for "deliberately provoking risk" after the countries' navies staged a rare joint sailing through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
The US Navy's 7th Fleet said the Chung-Hoon and Canada's Montreal conducted a "routine" transit of the strait on Saturday.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said the Chung-Hoon and Canada's Montreal were conducting a "routine" transit of the strait when the Chinese ship cut in front of the American vessel.
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.
Canadian Navy Commander Paul Mountford was onboard HMCS Montreal when he saw a Chinese warship come dangerously close to a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait on Saturday.
“The fact this was announced over the radio prior to doing it clearly indicated that was intentional,” Mountford said. “Maneuvering close to each other, 150 yards is very scary, and you never want to be that close to another vessel because too many things can go wrong, and you can actually have a collision.”
The maritime encounter was the latest close call between the Chinese and U.S. military. On May 26, the US Indo-Pacific Command said that a Chinese fighter jet carried out an "unnecessarily aggressive" manoeuvre near a US military plane over the South China Sea in international airspace.
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."
On Sunday, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu told Asia's top security summit that conflict with the United States would be an "unbearable disaster" but that his country sought dialogue over confrontation.
Reuters
