US military slams Chinese warship’s ‘unsafe and unprofessional’ manoeuvres in Taiwan Strait
- Incident over weekend, days after close call between two countries’ aircraft, ‘can lead to miscalculations’, says National Security Council spokesman
- But Chinese foreign ministry counters that China’s ship intercept was a measured response to a US provocation
Manoeuvring by a Chinese warship in the Taiwan Strait on Saturday a few days after a Chinese air force jet came dangerously close to a US aircraft was “unsafe and unprofessional”, a senior National Security Council official said on Monday.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby added that the close calls elevated tensions at a time when relations between the two major powers were already strained.
“It won’t be long before somebody gets hurt,” Kirby said at a regular White House briefing. “That’s the concern with these unsafe and unprofessional intercepts. They can lead to misunderstandings. They can lead to miscalculations.”
According to the Pentagon, a Chinese warship came within 150 yards (137 metres) of hitting the American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon over the weekend during a joint Canada-US operation.
Video footage taken from the deck of the US Burke-class Aegis destroyer released by the Pentagon appeared to show the Chinese ship cutting across the Chung-Hoon’s bow, leaving a large wake and prompting the US vessel to veer to the left.
“When you have pieces of metal of that size, whether it’s in the air or on the sea, and they are operating that close together, it wouldn’t take much for an error in judgment or a mistake to get made, and somebody could get hurt,” Kirby said. “And that’s just got to be unacceptable.”
US and China held ‘candid and productive’ talks: State Department
“It shouldn’t take the secretary of state to fly to Beijing to do that,” Kirby added. “But I know he’s willing to if needed.”
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday in Beijing that China’s ship intercept on Saturday was a measured response to a US provocation.
“These actions are completely justified, lawful, safe and professional,” Wang said. “China resolutely opposes the country concerned stirring up trouble in the Taiwan Strait.”
In a press conference at the same conference, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin raised the spectre of the 2001 mid-air collision between Chinese and US aircraft over Hainan Island that killed a Chinese pilot and crippled the US EP-3 spy plane.
“In those days we were talking to the PRC and it was still very difficult to manage that crisis. Imagine now if something happens and we don’t have clear communications, how difficult that’s going to be and what could happen in the short term,” Austin said.
“As I have engaged our allies and partners here and in other places, everybody has the same desire to be able to sail the seas and fly the skies in international space. So what we continue to see from the PRC is very concerning.”