U. S. SLAMS CHINA NAVY FOR ‘ CLOSE ENCOUNTER’

Washington, Oct. 2: A Chinese warship sailed within yards of an US 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 on Monday.

The USS Decatur guidedmissile 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 Spratly Islands. The distance is accepted as constituting the territorial waters of a landmass. In the operation, a Chinese Luyang destroyer approached the USS Decatur in “an unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvre in the vicinity of Gaven Reef in the SCS,” US Pacific Fleet spokesman Commander Nate Christensen said.