U.S. and Chinese warships close to colliding

BEIJING — The United States and China traded new accusations over naval operations in the South China Sea on Tuesday after warships from each country came perilously close to colliding in the disputed waters.

The Pentagon accused the Chinese navy of using “an unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvre” when one of its destroyers challenged a U.S. destroyer, the USS Decatur, as it sailed Sunday near one of the disputed islets that China claims in the Spratly archipelago.

The Chinese ship “conducted a series of increasingly aggressive manoeuvres,” coming within 45 yards of the bow of the Decatur, a guided-missile cruiser on what the Pentagon described as a routine mission in international waters.

The Chinese navy’s actions forced the Decatur to manoeuvre Pacific Fleet, Capt. Charlie Brown, said in a statement.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, but faces competing claims over the Spratlys from Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as Taiwan. The encounter Sunday occurred within 12 nautical miles of Gaven Reef, a pair of outcroppings in the sea that China has expanded and fortified with weaponry since 2014.

As tensions have increased over trade and other issues, the United States and other nations have intensified naval and aerial patrols in the sea to signal that the territories there remain in international waters. Britain, France and Japan have also conducted operations there in recent months, creating what many in China view as a co-ordinated campaign.

China’s defence and foreign ministries each released statements Tuesday sharply criticizing the United States, though not disputing details of the U.S. accusations involving the Decatur.

“The United States has repeatedly sent military ships to South China Sea islands and its adjacent waters, threatened China’s sovereignty and security, seriously damaged the relations between the two countries and militaries, and endangered regional peace and stability,” Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense, said in a statement.

Last week, China abruptly cancelled an annual security meeting planned for this month with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Beijing, not long after calling off trade talks in Washington. It also denied a request by another U.S. warship, the USS Wasp, to make a port visit in Hong Kong.