Several Chinese military ships were involved in an encounter with U.S. Coast Guard vessels in the Bering Sea near Alaska at the weekend, the Coast Guard said.
The presence of the four Chinese naval vessels marks a rare venture close to the waters of the United States, whose own naval forces have frequently been in confrontation with China’s in the disputed waters of the South China Sea and near Taiwan.
“We met presence with presence to ensure there were no disruptions to U.S. interests in the maritime environment around Alaska,” Rear Adm. Megan Dean, Seventeenth Coast Guard District commander, was quoted as saying of the encounter in the statement.
China’s naval forces have expanded rapidly in recent years as Beijing has challenged the dominance of the United States in the world’s oceans. China now has more naval ships than the United States even if they have smaller firepower.
“This is a great example of China determining how far they are able to operate without question,” Gregory Falco, an aerospace professor at Cornell University, told Newsweek.
“China’s interest in the Arctic region, such as around Alaska where this incursion occurred, is consistent with their current geopolitical position and focus on expansionism. It makes sense that the U.S. questioned their activities, China had regularly been monitoring areas of the Arctic more closely than before and we should be questioning why.”
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball found three vessels about 124 miles north of Amchitka Pass in the Aleutian Islands, which lie between Alaska and Russia in the Northern Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, an aircrew from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak identified a fourth vessel roughly 84 miles north of Amukta Pass, the Coast Guard said.
All four Chinese vessels were traveling through international waters but remained within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, which stretches 200 nautical miles from the U.S. shoreline, it said.
The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) allows countries to claim EEZs, granting a sovereign right to the maritime resources beyond their 12-nautical mile territorial sea.
“As a matter of principle, the Chinese navy has consistently exercised its navigation rights under international law and UNCLOS in international waters in a safe and professional way,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., told Newsweek.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense told Newsweek it had nothing to add beyond the Coast Guard’s comment.
The Coast Guard Cutter Kimball crew on a routine patrol in the Bering Sea encountered a People’s Republic of China Guided Missile Cruiser, Renhai CG 101, sailing approximately 75 nautical miles north of Kiska Island,…
The Coast Guard Cutter Kimball crew on a routine patrol in the Bering Sea encountered a People’s Republic of China Guided Missile Cruiser, Renhai CG 101, sailing approximately 75 nautical miles north of Kiska Island, Alaska, September 19, 2022. The same vessel encountered Chinese naval ships in waters off the United States at the weekend.
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U.S. Coast Guard
The Coast Guard said the Chinese vessels had responded to radio communication and that they had stated their purpose as “freedom of navigation operations.”
The U.S. has frequently conducted what it calls from freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea and transits of the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and the Communist-ruled mainland. Such operations in disputed waters that China claims as its own have drawn Chinese ire.
Tensions have risen recently over self-ruling Taiwan, which has never been under Communist rule, but which Beijing sees as its own. Tensions have also been high in the South China Sea, where several countries challenge China’s claims.
“The timing for this particular appearance is noteworthy, both because of the NATO summit taking place in Washington and ongoing stresses in the South China Sea, including tensions between China and the Philippines over the past few weeks,” said Marc Lanteigne, a professor of politics at The Arctic University of Tromso in Norway.
“China’s naval maneuvers off Alaska have had multiple purposes. They serve as a signal to the United States of China’s expanding naval capability in the Pacific and also closer to the Arctic; they are a response to U.S. policies in the South China Sea (‘two can play at that game’) and they underscore China’s concerns about having international maritime laws used to curtail Chinese maritime power.”
The Coast Guard said that the cutter Kimball kept monitoring all the Chinese ships until they moved south of the Aleutian Islands and out into the North Pacific Ocean.
“The Kimball continues to monitor activities in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone to ensure the safety of U.S. vessels and international commerce in the area,” it said.
It noted that there had also been encounters with Chinese vessels in the Bering Sea in 2021 and 2022. Russian and Chinese warships were spotted in the Bering Sea several dozen miles off an Alaskan island in September 2022, the U.S. Coast Guard said at the time.
“This operation by the PLA Navy off the coast of Alaska is neither their first, nor is it likely to be their last. As China continues to build what they intend to be a world-class navy, with global Chinese overseas interests to protect, we should expect to see Chinese warships operating in every sea—including off the North American coastline,” Thomas H. Shugart, the founder of Archer Strategic Consulting, told Newsweek.
Update: 07/11/24, 2:30 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional comments and context.
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Publish date : 2024-07-11 03:00:00
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