A U.S. Coast Guard cutter on routine patrol in the Bering Sea came across several Chinese military ships in international waters but within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, officials said.
The crew detected three vessels approximately 124 miles (200 kilometers) north of the Amchitka Pass in the Aleutian Islands, the Coast Guard said in a statement Wednesday. A short time later, a helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak spotted a fourth ship approximately 84 miles (135 kilometers) north of the Amukta Pass.
All four of the People’s Republic of China vessels were “transiting in international waters but still inside the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone,” which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the U.S. shoreline, the statement said.
“The Chinese naval presence operated in accordance with international rules and norms,” said Rear Adm. Megan Dean, Seventeenth Coast Guard District commander. “We met presence with presence to ensure there were no disruptions to U.S. interests in the maritime environment around Alaska.”
Why should we care? I’m being serious.
Well, China acted within all known maritime laws, so them being close isn’t in and of itself a problem. But imagine if the US Government didn’t comment on it and some shithead right-wing conspiracy asshole like Alex Jones found out about it? There’d be all kinds of new false realities about US-China relations.
Undoubtedly they’ll do it anyway, but re-spinning the narrative is less effective than making one up whole-cloth.
Also, we stop this all the time. Everyone does this all the time. Riding just on the edge of a border, maybe dipping a toe onto the other side a little bit. It’s testing to see how good your competition is, training, and moral building.
What makes this a little more newsworthy is how aggressive China had been lately, mainly against defenseless fishing boats; being cowardly bullies. They’re not going to turn water canons on US commercial vessels, much less warships, but one benefit of cozying up to and aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine gives them a freer hand to driver around in the Bering Straight. Like a dog, pissing on telephone poles.
Huh, what a completely reasonable response to my post. I hadn’t considered this but I absolutely agree. Thanks for providing some good context.
Sending a warship within the EEZ isn’t a violation of maritime law but it is provocative and shows that China is trying to “test the waters” and see how we respond.
It is not provocative at all and is regularly practiced by nations including the US, UK, France, Australia, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, and more.
There are UN sanctioned freedom of navigation exercises that enter EEZs all the time.
This is literally business as usual.
Your boy was a pustule in the first Matrix.
We, as in you and I, shouldn’t. This happens all the time. Any country with a military does this, whether it’s by land, sea, or air. The military cares because it gives them an opportunity to see what the ships are doing, what they’re equipped with, stuff like that. And because we have to protect our borders, lest they turn up on our land somewhere unnoticed and start saying it’s theirs.