Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Times
November 29, 2007
Pg. 1
Airs 'displeasure' with incident
By Bill Gertz, Washington Times
The Pentagon issued a formal protest to China's military yesterday over its refusal to allow a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group to dock in Hong Kong over the Thanksgiving holiday.
President Bush, meanwhile, was told by China's foreign minister that the incident was the result of a misunderstanding.
The Pentagon's Asia policy official, David Sedney, an assistant deputy defense secretary, yesterday notified Chinese Embassy defense attache Maj. Gen. Zhao Ning of the protest for turning away the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier strike group on Nov. 22, and two Navy minesweepers in a separate incident days before.
Pentagon press spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters the meeting was requested to "issue a formal protest, an official protest, complaint, about the incident."
"We are expressing officially our displeasure with the incident," he said. The communication was not a diplomatic protest note, but issued as part of U.S.-China military exchanges, Mr. Morrell said later.
At the White House, Mr. Bush met with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and asked him to explain the Chinese government's refusal to permit Navy ships to make recent port calls.
During talks that focused on Iran and North Korea, Mr. Bush brought up the Kitty Hawk issue, said White House press secretary Dana Perino.
"The president raised the issue about the recent aborted port call by the USS Kitty Hawk," Mrs. Perino said. "Foreign Minister Yang announced that, assured the president that it was a misunderstanding."
It was the first official response explaining China's action in turning away the carrier and later inviting it back.
China's government made no public statement on the incident, which angered U.S. military officials because hundreds of family members of the strike group's 8,000 sailors had traveled to Hong Kong to spend Thanksgiving with relatives.
Military officials also criticized China for blocking a port visit days earlier by the two minesweepers that had sought to avoid a storm, but were turned away in violation of long-standing naval tradition.
After being blocked, the Kitty Hawk strike group, which includes two missile cruisers and six guided missile destroyers, changed course and headed for its home port of Yokosuka, Japan, because of bad weather, rather than turn back to Hong Kong.
A senior Pentagon official said later that the Kitty Hawk and its warships transited through the Taiwan Strait on the way back to Japan, in a deliberate statement to China, which in the past opposed U.S. warships traveling through the strait where Chinese and Taiwanese forces are faced off.
Other officials said the Chinese anti-Navy action was carried out to protest U.S. sales of upgraded Patriot missile systems equipment to Taiwan.
Mr. Morrell said that if the Chinese objected to the Patriot missile upgrades, as first reported in The Washington Times yesterday, the protest is misguided because the missile-equipment sale was planned for months.
As for Chinese complaints that the sale was not mentioned during Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' recent visit to Beijing, Mr. Morrell said that it is not Mr. Gates' role to "relay that information" to the Chinese.
"What I believe took place there is that the State Department, as is their responsibility, has to update Congress as to foreign military sales of this nature, and it was sort of the normal reporting process to the Hill," he said.
Mr. Morrell said he did not know whether the Kitty Hawk battle group was monitoring Chinese naval exercises near Taiwan prior to the its transit to Hong Kong.
Defense officials said the Kitty Hawk did not monitor the large-scale Chinese naval exercises that took place in the South China Sea, about 700 miles to the south, about the time the Kitty Hawk and other warships approached Hong Kong.
Mr. Morrell said of China's explanation of the incident as a misunderstanding: "I don't know that that's a satisfactory explanation."
"But the explanation is really due to the families of those sailors who, at great personal cost, had made arrangements to go visit their loved ones over Thanksgiving and in Hong Kong expecting the Kitty Hawk to port there as planned," he said.
The Chinese exercises near Hainan island included new Chinese guided missile warships and warplanes that are an intelligence target of the U.S. military, defense officials said.
Jon Ward contributed to this report.
November 29, 2007
Pg. 1
Airs 'displeasure' with incident
By Bill Gertz, Washington Times
The Pentagon issued a formal protest to China's military yesterday over its refusal to allow a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group to dock in Hong Kong over the Thanksgiving holiday.
President Bush, meanwhile, was told by China's foreign minister that the incident was the result of a misunderstanding.
The Pentagon's Asia policy official, David Sedney, an assistant deputy defense secretary, yesterday notified Chinese Embassy defense attache Maj. Gen. Zhao Ning of the protest for turning away the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier strike group on Nov. 22, and two Navy minesweepers in a separate incident days before.
Pentagon press spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters the meeting was requested to "issue a formal protest, an official protest, complaint, about the incident."
"We are expressing officially our displeasure with the incident," he said. The communication was not a diplomatic protest note, but issued as part of U.S.-China military exchanges, Mr. Morrell said later.
At the White House, Mr. Bush met with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and asked him to explain the Chinese government's refusal to permit Navy ships to make recent port calls.
During talks that focused on Iran and North Korea, Mr. Bush brought up the Kitty Hawk issue, said White House press secretary Dana Perino.
"The president raised the issue about the recent aborted port call by the USS Kitty Hawk," Mrs. Perino said. "Foreign Minister Yang announced that, assured the president that it was a misunderstanding."
It was the first official response explaining China's action in turning away the carrier and later inviting it back.
China's government made no public statement on the incident, which angered U.S. military officials because hundreds of family members of the strike group's 8,000 sailors had traveled to Hong Kong to spend Thanksgiving with relatives.
Military officials also criticized China for blocking a port visit days earlier by the two minesweepers that had sought to avoid a storm, but were turned away in violation of long-standing naval tradition.
After being blocked, the Kitty Hawk strike group, which includes two missile cruisers and six guided missile destroyers, changed course and headed for its home port of Yokosuka, Japan, because of bad weather, rather than turn back to Hong Kong.
A senior Pentagon official said later that the Kitty Hawk and its warships transited through the Taiwan Strait on the way back to Japan, in a deliberate statement to China, which in the past opposed U.S. warships traveling through the strait where Chinese and Taiwanese forces are faced off.
Other officials said the Chinese anti-Navy action was carried out to protest U.S. sales of upgraded Patriot missile systems equipment to Taiwan.
Mr. Morrell said that if the Chinese objected to the Patriot missile upgrades, as first reported in The Washington Times yesterday, the protest is misguided because the missile-equipment sale was planned for months.
As for Chinese complaints that the sale was not mentioned during Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' recent visit to Beijing, Mr. Morrell said that it is not Mr. Gates' role to "relay that information" to the Chinese.
"What I believe took place there is that the State Department, as is their responsibility, has to update Congress as to foreign military sales of this nature, and it was sort of the normal reporting process to the Hill," he said.
Mr. Morrell said he did not know whether the Kitty Hawk battle group was monitoring Chinese naval exercises near Taiwan prior to the its transit to Hong Kong.
Defense officials said the Kitty Hawk did not monitor the large-scale Chinese naval exercises that took place in the South China Sea, about 700 miles to the south, about the time the Kitty Hawk and other warships approached Hong Kong.
Mr. Morrell said of China's explanation of the incident as a misunderstanding: "I don't know that that's a satisfactory explanation."
"But the explanation is really due to the families of those sailors who, at great personal cost, had made arrangements to go visit their loved ones over Thanksgiving and in Hong Kong expecting the Kitty Hawk to port there as planned," he said.
The Chinese exercises near Hainan island included new Chinese guided missile warships and warplanes that are an intelligence target of the U.S. military, defense officials said.
Jon Ward contributed to this report.