Taiwan Strait: US claims Chinese warship came near American destroyer in 'unsafe manner'
US and Canadian navies on Saturday 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
US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon sails alongside the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Montreal during Surface Action Group operations as a part of exercise “Noble Wolverine" in the South China Sea May 30, 2023. Reuters
The US Military has claimed that a Chinese warship came near to a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait in an “unsafe manner” while China blamed US for “deliberately provoking risk” in the region.”
The warship was about 150 yards (137 meters) away from the US destroyer, officials said.
US and Canadian navies on Saturday 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 U.S. guided-missile destroyer Chung-Hoon forcing it to slow down to avoid a collision, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.
China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory. Taiwan’s government, on the other hand, says the PRC has never ruled the island and U.S. President Joe Biden has said the US would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
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 US Command said in a statement that the Chinese ship was “closest point of approach was 150 yards and its actions violated the maritime ‘Rules of the Road’ of safe passage in international waters.”
Video footage broadcast by the 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.
The encounter is the latest close call between the Chinese and US military in just over a month. On May 26, a Chinese fighter jet carried out an “unnecessarily aggressive” maneuver near a US military plane over the South China Sea in international airspace, the US Indo-Pacific Command said on Tuesday.
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