Canada’s HMCS Montreal Commander Paul Mountford — who witnessed the incident — called it ‘clearly instigated’ by the Chinese
A Chinese warship came within 150 yards of hitting the USS Chung-Hoon on Saturday before crossing its bow a second time at closer to 2,000 yards while the U.S. destroyer was conducting joint exercises with Canada in the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) confirmed.
The incident occurred as U.S.-Chinese tensions remain high in the South China Sea.
The Chinese ship “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner,” overtaking the USS Chung-Hoon on its portside at 150 yards while the U.S. destroyer was sailing “through waters where high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply” with Canada’s HMCS Montreal, USINDOPACOM said in a release.
The Chinese ship then crossed Chung-Hoon’s bow a second time “starboard to port at 2,000 yards and remained off Chung-Hoon’s port bow,” the release added.
USINDOPACOM said “its actions violated the maritime ‘Rules of the Road’ of safe passage in international waters.”
The U.S. told the Chinese ship to stay away from the destroyer and at the last moment the Chinese altered course, Canada’s Global News reported The Chung-Hoon slowed down to 10 knots but maintained its course.
HMCS Montreal Commander Paul Mountford called the incident “not professional” on the part of the Chinese, saying it was “clearly instigated by the Chinese,” according to Global News.
“The fact this was announced over the radio prior to doing it, clearly indicated this was intentional,” he added.
He continued, “I am hoping that is an isolated incident that won’t happen again for us, because we have international law on our side. This is international waters.”
The Chinese had warned the U.S. and Canadian ships they were in Chinese territorial waters, despite the strait being recognized as international waters, Mountford said.
Chinese vessels had been shadowing the joint U.S.-Canadian exercises for the last week before they entered the Taiwan Strait, the outlet reported.
Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said, “Canada will continue to sail where international law allows, including the Strait, the South China Sea,” according to Global News.
She added, “Our overall goal is to increase the peace and stability of this region. And that’s why we are going to continue to see more of Canada in this region as set out in our Indo-Pacific strategy. We’ve already seen unsafe intercepts, and we have addressed those appropriately with China in terms of our RCAF pilots. Actors in this region must engage responsibly, and that’s the bottom line.”
Anand just participated in a security summit in Singapore that was also attended by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu.