US-Chinese naval standoff the latest in a string of clashes
The US Navy has accused Chinese ships of harassing a US submarine-tracking vessel in the South China Sea.
By Peter Ford | Staff writer 03.10.09
BEIJING – Chinese fishermen nearly made off with some of the US Navy’s most modern and secret submarine tracking equipment, it seems, in a South China Sea incident Sunday that is making diplomatic waves.
Unarmed American seamen on the USNS Impeccable were reduced to turning their firehoses on five Chinese military and fishing vessels – one of which approached to within 25 feet before the US ship withdrew, according to the US Navy account.
The incident is the latest in a string of clashes and standoffs between Chinese and US military forces in the South China Sea, though with both Beijing and Washington apparently keen to maintain close relations, this affair is not expected to boil over.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu Tuesday said the Impeccable “broke international and Chinese laws” and had deserved to be seen off.
The US Embassy here countered that the civilian-crewed US Navy ship had been “conducting routine operations … in accordance with customary international law.” A Pentagon statement accused the Chinese vessels of having “aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity” to the Impeccable.
So what was going on last Sunday? Just a more public, and possibly more dangerous spat in the ongoing cat and mouse game that the US and Chinese navies play quietly all the time in the South China Sea.
There is little doubt what the Impeccable was doing 75 miles off the coast of the island of Hainan, where the Chinese have built a major submarine base. It is one of only four US ships worldwide equipped with the latest generation of sub-hunting sonar, known as SURTASS LFA (which stands for Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System - Low Frequency Active, in case you were wondering.)
At one point during the incident, “the Chinese used poles in an attempt to snag the Impeccable’s towed acoustic array sonars,” reported the US Navy’s press service, quoting Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Had they succeeded, it would have been embarrassing, to say the least. In a 2007 environmental impact statement, the Navy described LFA as “the only available technology capable of meeting the US need to improve detection of quieter and hard-to-find foreign submarines at long range.”
With Hainan not far from Taiwan, the island-state that China claims and the US has pledged to defend against any attack, this is sensitive technology. The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk was discomfited a couple of years ago when it was on maneuvers and a Chinese submarine surfaced a few hundred yards off its bow. None of the flagship’s carrier-strike group had spotted the intruder.
Sunday’s incident came after a week of what the Pentagon statement called “increasingly aggressive conduct by Chinese vessels” aimed at the Impeccable and a sister ship, including low-altitude flybys by Chinese maritime surveillance planes.
The Chinese appear to be stretching the law when they claim that the Impeccable was engaged in illegal activities. The UN Law of the Sea does not specifically permit military activities within other countries’ 200-mile “exclusive economic zones,” but it only specifically prohibits them within 12-mile territorial waters, and nobody is saying the Impeccable was that close to the Chinese coast.
Oh, and why did the Navy have to produce an environmental impact report on the Low Frequency Active sonar? Because not only the Chinese are upset about it. Conservation groups in the US had charged that the system disturbs whales and other ocean-dwelling mammals. Their objections were overruled.
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2. Dave | 03.10.09
What would happen if the Chinese parked one of their Military vessels 120km of the coast of L.A. ….and started dragging a submarine detector around, you americans need to pull your head and start looking more at your problems at home rather than stirring up stuff overseas.
3. Sean Brunnock | 03.10.09
What is the source for your statement that “The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk was discomfited a couple of years ago when it was on maneuvers and a Chinese submarine surfaced a few hundred yards off its bow” ?
The sources that I found state that a sub surfaced within 5 miles-
6. Scott C | 03.10.09
Dave,
The Impeccable is not a Navy warship. It is a government vessel contracted to the Navy. It was built in Halter shipyard in Alabama and delivered to the operator, Maersk, in Norfolk, Va. It is operated by merchant officers and seamen. There are Navy personnel aboard only to operate the sonar equipment. Actually she’s a pretty cool vessel. A catamaran hull with diesel generated power for her twin electric drive motors. The hull design is so stable that in 15 ft. seas and 16 kts., you can hardly tell your moving. I know all this because I was the 1st Engineer that delivered her from the shipbuilder to the owner in Norfolk.
7. Saipan | 03.10.09
Ask Dr. John Craven what’s going on. He knows. He also helped author the Law of the Sea with just such loopholes.
Kinda funny how the chinese are using these low-tech techniques like bumping an airplane to force it to land on Hainan or just hooking the sonar arrays up out of the water from a fishing boat to capture intelligence and hardware.
8. Kelly | 03.10.09
International Law clearly sanctions the right of all nations to navigate its vessels in Int’l waters and The U.S.Navy is doing what it has every right to do.. without violating the restrictions of the chinese “economic zone”..
All western democracies understand: If you don’t excercise your rights, by establishing customery or frequent passage (to demonstrate ‘continueous’ your right of passage).. then arbitrary national laws (like the chinese are attempting), over time, tend to restrict access by foreign domicile vessels… and you loose those rights! Wake-up people.. this has been going on for hundreds of years and is not a sustemic return to the ‘cold war’ tactics… The Chinese don’t like us advancing our capability to track their subs; would you expect them too???? Its in the interest of the U.S. to send an unarmed vessel their, and no Int’l laws were broken. So ‘hate America first’ whiners..take a hike !
9. awbilinski | 03.10.09
It is not a matter of the Cold War “all over again”. It’s about the ability to project force around a planet that has 70% of its surface area covered by the sea. ICBM’s may still play a role, but the ability to sail a carrier task force within air coverage of trouble spots would make T. Roosevelt grin with envy. With carrier battle groups protected by sophisticated air-defense systems, a real threat remains below sea level from potentially hostile submarines and the USN is in the business of making sure it knows as much as possible about undersea routes. I would not be surprised, nor would the Chinese, to learn that some remote sensors got left behind on the ocean floor to monitor PRC submarine movement. For those offended by this “snooping”, pleae keep in mind that when both sides have a decent idea of what the other has and is up to, there is a much smaller chance of accidentally starting a firefight. I don’t recall exactly how close that sub got to Kitty Hawk, but it was within KH’s defensive perimeter. Imagine how the 5,000 US sailors on KH enjoyed the implications of that “gotcha” by the Chinese.
10. Jim Bencivenga | 03.10.09
Salamis, Lepanto, Midway - naval battles that shaped western civilization. US naval dominance is secure for at most two decades. China’s merchant fleet provides an able force to challend command of the seas (Alfred Thayer Mahan). China will claim its place on the world oceans by 2030 - we’ll see if the US shares, fights, or is pushed into port.
11. Jack King | 03.10.09
To the “head in the sand” masses: the Chinese military regularly parks and patrols nuclear submarines off the West Coast of the USA. Often intruding as far as they dare into well established territorial waters. While on marine biological research expeditions. I have encountered them twice. Once legally within Monterey Bay; and, a second time just off the Golden Gate Bridge. I have heard and read of similar incidents in Southern California at Long Beach (our largest commercial port) and the US naval base at San Diego. Doubtless, they are virtually resident in nearshore Hawai’in waters.
12. sunking | 03.10.09
This has ‘CIA’ written ALL over it!
The original statements from 3/9/09 mentioned nothing about the sonar array business. Sounds like someone is trying to escalate this.
Is there a defense budget bill up for a vote or something?
Or does this have something to do with the North Korean sabre-rattling???
13. Anon | 03.10.09
The US is not the same as China. No comparison between a democratic egalitarian nation and a repressive dictatorship (just ask any non-Han Chinese in china).
The US should just send in the 7th fleet and get it over with.
14. AMIGuy | 03.11.09
China claims the entire South China Sea. This claim overlaps those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia and have been the cause of much consternation.
China’s claim and their prevention of navigation and use of much of the South China Sea is of significant concern. Almost all of the petroleum and natural gas reserves for each of these five countries comes from this area.
To ignore the rights of the other five nations in this contested area of the world is wrong.
Throughout the last 30 years many have anticipated that if these claims were not settled, they would result in China’s trying to interfere with the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. This is just one in many instances of this activity on China’s part.
http://www.ndu.edu/inss/Strforum/SF_60/forum60.html
AMIGuy
16. NormalGuy | 03.28.09
China is imperialism! they claim the entire south china sea and dare to harass US civil vessel. In a way that action indicates their intention to confront with the US navy. They are very sneaky, trying to build nuclear subs to take over the entire Asia and the world! I’m hoping the US is aware of this and doing something to prevent this.
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1. SCOTT HAYDEN | 03.10.09
Why are there unarmed Navy vessels anywhere?