The top US military commander in the Pacific said on Thursday he was "perplexed and concerned" by China's last-minute decision to deny a US aircraft carrier entry to Hong Kong for a previously scheduled port visit.
The USS Kitty Hawk and its escort ships were due to dock in Hong Kong for a four-day visit on Wednesday until they were refused access. Hundreds of family members who had flown to Hong Kong to spend Thanksgiving with their sailors were stranded by the move.
"It's hard to put any kind of positive spin on this," Admiral Timothy Keating told the media in a telephone interview from his airplane on his way home from visiting US and coalition troops in Iraq.
China later reversed its decision and said the ships could enter on humanitarian grounds, but the notice came while the vessels were already on their way back to their home ports. The vessels chose not to turn around.
It was the second time in a week China refused to let US Navy ships into the port.
Keating said two US mine-sweepers seeking to refuel and looking for shelter from bad weather in the South China Sea had asked for permission to enter Hong Kong three or four days before the Kitty Hawk incident. But these ships also were denied, he said.
The developments come as the US military has been trying to increase personal ties with the Chinese military to prevent misunderstandings and the potential for miscalculation.
Chinese warships visited US naval bases in Pearl Harbor and San Diego last year, and the two navies have since held basic exercises together.
High-level commanders have traveled back and forth between the two Pacific powers, while Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Beijing earlier this month.
Keating, who heads the US Pacific Command from its Hawaii headquarters, said he was unaware of any reason for China's decision.
"It's my understanding the Chinese just said `no,'" he said.
China has in the past barred US Navy ships from Hong Kong when bilateral relations have been strained.
In recent weeks, the two sides have had disagreements over trade, Iran's nuclear program and the US Congress awarding a medal to the Dalai Lama.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
RSS