Cyber attacks, spying, economic espionage, and now threatening U.S. Naval vessels.
Five Chinese ships including a Chinese naval vessel harassed a U.S. Navy ship in the South China Sea on Sunday, at one point closing to within 25 feet of the ocean surveillance ship, the Pentagon said.
A Defense Department statement said the Chinese vessels “shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity” to the USS Impeccable, which was conducting routine operations in international waters 75 miles south of Hainan Island.
The Pentagon identified the Chinese vessels as a Navy intelligence ship, a bureau of maritime fisheries patrol vessel, a state oceanographic administration patrol vessel, and two small Chinese-flagged trawlers.
The Pentagon said the U.S. ship was operated by a civilian crew under contract with the Defense Department and accused the Chinese vessels of violating international law.
“We will be certainly letting the Chinese officials know of our displeasure with respect to this careless and reckless, unprofessional … maneuver,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.
Two Chinese vessels surrounded the Impeccable, while two closed to within 50 feet waving Chinese flags and telling the U.S. Navy ship to leave, the statement said.
The Navy ship responded by spraying one of the vessels with its fire hoses, but the Chinese ship closed further to within 25 feet and its crew members disrobed to their underwear, the Pentagon said.
……The Pentagon said the incident was preceded by days of increasingly aggressive conduct by Chinese vessels.
1. It’s too bad the ship wasn’t operated by U.S. sailors. They wouldn’t have sprayed water.
2. I did some research on the USS Impeccable, and according to the Navy Historical site, “She was decommissioned in October 1955 and remained in reserve until sold for scrapping in 1974”.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-i/am320.htm
So, either another Impeccable was built, or Reuters (the news source) got their information wrong. Which incidentally, wouldn’t be the first time.
In anycase, China is one of those enemies in our peripheral vision that needs to be kept in check, if not dealt with face to face. As in stop the shit or we’ll take a hard line with your fucking imports by imposing the tarrifs we should have charged all along. We took in $232 billion in goods from China than we sold to it in 2008, at no where near the import duties they got in return.
In case no one noticed by now, doing business with a communist country will not transform it into a capitalist/democratic/freedom-nurturing society. All we’ve done is prop up the totalitarian bastards with American dollars. Their political system and oppressive domestic abuses haven’t changed much since Mao.
Tell me why we allow their products to flood our markets, again?