Chinese destroyer sails very close to US warship

WASHINGTON: A Chinese warship sailed within yards of an American destroyer – forcing it to change course – in an “unsafe and unprofessional” encounter as the US vessel was in contested waters in the South China Sea, an official said.

The USS Decatur guided-missile destroyer was conducting what the military calls a “freedom of navigation operation” on Sunday when it passed within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson reefs in the remote Spratly Islands.

The 12-mile distance is commonly accepted as constituting the territorial waters of a landmass.

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it.

Beijing claims all of the Spratlys and has built a number of military installations on the islands.

During the operation, a Chinese

Luyang destroyer approached the

USS Decatur in “an unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvre in the vicinity of Gaven Reef in the South China Sea”, US Pacific Fleet spokesman Commander Nate Christensen said.

The Chinese ship then conducted a series of “increasingly aggressive manoeuvres, and warned the

Decatur to depart the area”, he added.

In a statement, the Chinese Defence Ministry said that its ship had “given a warning to leave” to the vessel after it entered the area “without permission”.

“The US has repeatedly sent warships into the territorial waters near Chinese reefs and islands.”

The behaviour “gravely threatens China’s sovereignty and security, gravely damages relations between China and the US and their militaries, and gravely injures regional peace and stability”.