China Blocks US Aircraft Carrier John C. Stennis Access To Hong Kong Port
By MINA
China has denied a US request for an aircraft carrier group led by USS John C. Stennis to make a port visit to Hong Kong, the US State Department said on Friday, confirming earlier media reports.
Pentagon spokesman, Commander Bill Urban, said another US warship, the USS Blue Ridge, was currently in Hong Kong on a stop-over and the US expected that to continue.
Urban added that the request for a Hong Kong visit by the carrier and its strike group, which have been patrolling the South China Sea, was recently denied, despite a “long track record of successful port visits to Hong Kong.”
The Chinese government, as well as the country’s embassy in Washington did not comment.
The warship requested a port call permit early on Thursday.
The South China Morning Post newspaper, citing the Chinese Foreign Ministry, reported that port calls by US warships and military aircraft had to be approved on a “case by case basis in accordance with sovereignty principles and specific circumstances.”
Aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, two destroyers, two cruisers and a Japan-based US Seventh Fleet flagship sailed into the waters of the South China Sea in early March, to counter the presence of China. The latter has territorial disputes over islands in the South China Sea, rich in deposits of natural resources, with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. To assure its claim over the disputed territory, Beijing has been rapidly setting up defense installations in the area.
Beijing has repeatedly warned against US interference in the region. Despite this the US Navy is actively opposing the Chinese initiative, deploying additional warships to the disputed zone and conducting maneuvers near artificial Chinese islands and flying over them, citing “freedom of navigation” as an excuse.
Earlier this month China accused the US of “sabotaging regional peace” after the Pentagon chief announced a military buildup in the Philippines. Speaking in the Philippines on April 14, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the US will keep nearly 300 troops in the Philippines through the end of the month, despite completing the joint military drills. He added that US troops will have combat aircraft and helicopters at their disposal. ” In response the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that military exchanges by relevant countries should not target third parties and much less support a few countries in challenging China’s sovereignty and security.
What a bully! The USS John C. Stennis was sent to the South China Sea to provoke and humiliate China, and they have the nerve to request a port visit to Hong Kong. It is like requesting China to invite them home for a cup of tea after slapping China on the face.
China is the bully in this situation…trying to steal land/territory from it’s smaller, less defensive neighbors (like Russia did). The USA is just reminding China (nicely) to stop stealing (like a thief) from their neighbors by building artificial islands…really?
The USA and Other Nations asked verbally and with written words to stop building islands, but now because of China’s fault…We have to say it in other words (with War Ships).
Stop acting like children, bulling others and instead sit down at a table with it’s neighbors and right down a deal that will benefit all in that region. Oh…and stop bringing up an old map of territory that some map-maker drew claiming it’s ours? I can draw a map too. lol
Just Grow up already…Stop Stealing, stop bulling.
The US is just trying to keep the peace in the region so innocent life’s (including military personal) from being killed because of the “hungry power-Mover’s” that run government and starting a war or something even worse.
Speak Up! Tell your Government to stop invading and Stealing Territory that can be claimed by others. It’s Not Right!
It’s embarrassing to see someone as illiterate as R. Trenholm commenting in this space. Nevertheless, I shall observe that the Chinese humiliation to the US government in the Stennis incident is a harbinger of trouble to come as the contest between an exhausted hegemon and a rising economic and military power develops. Some years ago, US scholar Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” warned us that the coming US decision would be whether to confront China or to “bandwagon” it. The evil day of decision is now upon us, and no one with half a brain can possibly think the current contenders to be US president (or the dim Ashton Carter) will have any idea of what ought to be done. As US scholar John Mearsheimer has observed, the Chinese are reality-based, while the US continues to live in its fantasy of military superiority, as though spending trillions were the equivalent of using one’s brain. The raw fact that the US military was stopped in Korea, vanquished in Vietnam, stopped in Afghanistan. and stymied by ISIL has been ignored or explained away. The fact that it was AWOL at the time of the 9/11 attacks has, somehow, not been taken into account by anyone, least of all by military leaders. Murder from the skies via fighters, cruise missiles, and drones wipes out multitudes of civilians and infra-structure, but wins no wars. Overweening confidence in high-tech hardware simply leads to hubris, of which the US now has far too much. The ancient Greeks knew the penalty for hubris–destruction–which America will learn to its sorrow. I should say I take no stand on the China Sea issues, except to observe that “geography is destiny” and I see absolutely no possibility that China will abandon its efforts to control the resources lying beneath the Spratleys. “Freedom of navigation” is a weak reed upon which to base a policy; it will go nowhere.