China yesterday demanded the US cease what it called illegal activities in the South China Sea, as it rejected Pentagon assertions that Chinese vessels harassed a US Navy ship there.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said US complaints that five Chinese ships had harassed a US Navy ship in the South China Sea were “totally inaccurate.”
“The US Navy ship Impeccable broke international law and Chinese laws and regulations,” Ma told reporters in a news briefing.
“China has made solemn representations to the United States requesting that the US immediately stop these activities and take effective measures to avoid similar activities in the future,” he said.
The US said it had formally protested to Chinese authorities over Sunday’s incident in the South China Sea, about 120km south of China’s Hainan Island in international waters.
The dispute added a new dimension to fragile military relations between the world powers, which had enjoyed a brief period of slight optimism after they held defense talks last month.
The Pentagon said the incident saw Chinese boats move directly in front of the Impeccable, forcing it to take emergency action to avoid a collision, and then dropped pieces of wood into its path.
“This was a reckless, dangerous maneuver that was unprofessional” and violated international law, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters on Monday.
Ma rejected that account, saying it was “absolutely unacceptable to China.”
The Impeccable is a surveillance vessel designed to support anti-submarine warfare.
Ma said it violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea but declined to answer when repeatedly asked to specify exactly which part of the convention was broken.
The Chinese vessels included a navy intelligence ship, a government fisheries patrol vessel, a state oceanographic patrol boat and two small trawlers, the Pentagon said.
Whitman said one of the Chinese ships came within 7.5m of the Impeccable and that the Chinese crew tried to snag the cables that tow the ship’s underwater sonars.
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