China flip-flops on visit by U.S. carrier

BEIJING – China’s decision to block the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk from a long-planned Thanksgiving visit to Hong Kong, before relenting 24 hours later “on humanitarian grounds,” had all the markings of a diplomatic slap in the face, analysts say. It just isn’t clear whose face it was aimed at.

Word spread Wednesday afternoon that China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had suddenly and inexplicably blocked a five-day visit by the giant vessel and its strike group, despite prior approval and weeks of advance planning.

Then a day later, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told journalists that Beijing would relent, but added that its change of heart was “a decision out of humanitarian consideration only.” Efforts by foreign reporters to get him to explain why China had reversed course failed.

“It’s a little odd,” said Eric Hagt, editor of China Security Journal, a defense publication based in Washington. “It all seems rather unforeseen and unknowable.”

China’s Defense Ministry offered no statement. Nor, said U.S. military officials, did it provide any back-channel explanation.

The Chinese turnaround also came too late, added Lt. Cmdr. John Filostrat, a spokesman with the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. The Kitty Hawk waited as long as it could before logistics and bad weather forced it to sail away.

The decision was not meant to signal some sort of U.S. countersnub, he added. “It’s now en route to its base in Yokosuka, Japan.”

One reason China might have reversed itself was the prospect of a public relations calamity in the making, although in the end the damage was done. Some 8,000 American sailors face several glum days at sea, while hundreds of their family members had traveled to Hong Kong from Japan and the United States.

“Wives, newborn babies, are all sitting at Fenwick Pier,” said Paul Buxton, manager of Hong Kong’s Quarterdeck restaurant, which has a contract to feed and entertain the hungry hordes.