USA / China

Chi­nese Ves­sels Approach Sealift Com­mand Ship in Yel­low Sea

WASHINGTON, May 5, 2009 — Chi­nese fish­ing ves­sels closed in on and maneu­vered near the USNS Vic­to­ri­ous in inter­na­tion­al waters in the Yel­low Sea on May 1, Pen­ta­gon offi­cials said today.
The Vic­to­ri­ous is one of the five ocean sur­veil­lance ships that are part of the 25 ships in Mil­i­tary Sealift Command’s Spe­cial Mis­sion Ships Program. 

The ves­sel was con­duct­ing rou­tine oper­a­tions 170 miles off the coast of Chi­na when two Chi­nese fish­ing ves­sels approached, Pen­ta­gon spokesman Bryan Whit­man said.
“This was an inci­dent where a cou­ple of Chi­nese fish­ing ves­sels maneu­vered close to the Vic­to­ri­ous in what was an unsafe man­ner,” Whit­man said. 

The Vic­to­ri­ous took defen­sive mea­sures as the ves­sels got close. The Vic­to­ri­ous crew sound­ed the ship’s dan­ger alarms and manned fire hoses. They sprayed water at the Chi­nese ves­sels, but did not hit them, offi­cials said. 

The Vic­to­ri­ous request­ed the assis­tance of a near­by Chi­nese gov­ern­ment ves­sel, at which time the fish­ing ves­sels depart­ed, Whit­man said. 

He did not com­ment on the motive of the Chi­nese ves­sels. “That requires you to get inside the heads of the mariners out there,” he said. “What is clear is that it is unsafe and dan­ger­ous behav­ior, and it needs to be addressed. We do not want the mariners of any of the ves­sels out there in jeopardy.” 

One Chi­nese ves­sel approached with­in 30 yards of the Vic­to­ri­ous, offi­cials said. “They are clear­ly demon­strat­ing unsafe sea­man­ship,” Whit­man said. “As we have in pre­vi­ous inci­dents, we’ll be devel­op­ing a way for­ward to deal with this diplomatically.” 

On March 8, five Chi­nese ves­sels sur­round­ed the USNS Impec­ca­ble as it was con­duct­ing oper­a­tions 80 nau­ti­cal miles off Hainan Island. There have been oth­er inci­dents where Chi­nese ves­sels oper­at­ed in an unsafe man­ner around U.S. ocean sur­veil­lance ships. 

“It’s in everybody’s inter­est to ensure that safe pro­ce­dures on the seas are fol­lowed,” Whit­man said. “This was clear­ly well into inter­na­tion­al waters.” 

Mil­i­tary ves­sels are not sub­ject to coastal state juris­dic­tion and do not require the pri­or con­sent of the coastal state for activ­i­ty in the exclu­sive eco­nom­ic zone. 

Source: U.S. Depart­ment of Defense; Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →