U.S. ships sail through sensitive Taiwan Strait

BEIJING – A spat over China’s denial of port calls to U.S. naval vessels has led the Pentagon to deploy an increasing number of large ships to transit the Taiwan Strait in some of the most sensitive waters in East Asia.

While the U.S. Navy has explained the passage of at least seven ships through the strait in the past nine days as the result of bad weather, it also conveys U.S. displeasure to China over its refusal to let Navy vessels dock in Hong Kong.

China has now refused entry to nine U.S. Navy vessels into Hong Kong harbor. On Friday, Navy officials said China denied permission to a U.S. Air Force C-17 flight that had been scheduled for a routine re-supply of the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong.

The sudden port denials have angered Pentagon officials, and baffled U.S. policymakers puzzling over the message China seeks to send.

China refused two U.S. minesweepers – the USS Patriot and the USS Guardian – from entering Hong Kong to escape bad weather on Nov. 21, then barred the USS Kitty Hawk and its escort ships and an accompanying nuclear-powered submarine from docking in Hong Kong for a long-scheduled Thanksgiving port call.

About 290 family members of Navy seamen had traveled to Hong Kong to be with the sailors during the holiday.

After China’s refusal of entry, fleet commanders ordered both the minesweepers and the Kitty Hawk carrier group to move through the Taiwan Strait toward Japan.

“Due to the adverse weather and worsening sea conditions in the surrounding area, it was decided that the prudent path for safer seas was to transit the strait,” Curry said.

A Pacific Fleet spokesman in Honolulu, Jon Yoshishige, said it is “not unusual for our ships to transit the Taiwan Strait.”

Yet entire aircraft carrier battle groups rarely do so. The last time that occurred was in 2002 when the USS Constellation aircraft carrier and its escort ships moved through the strait.

A guided missile cruiser and three guided missile destroyers escorted the Kitty Hawk.

The Taiwan Strait, barely 100 miles wide at its narrowest, is a potential military flashpoint. Mainland China claims Taiwan as a renegade province, and says it has the right to seize control of the independently governed island with its military. It aims more than 900 short-range ballistic missiles across the strait.

The strait, which bustles with ships, is barely 230 feet deep at its deepest, adding hazard to passage.