Beijing’s challenge to US warship in South China Sea ‘deliberate and calculated’, observers say
By the normal rules for ensuring navigational safety ‘there’s no way we would see ships getting so close’, analyst says
China was making a clear and deliberate statement that it will not tolerate challenges to its sovereignty when it sent a destroyer to “confront” a US warship in the South China Sea on Sunday, military and diplomatic analysts said.
The incident happened when a Chinese Luyang-class destroyer sailed within 41 metres (135 feet) of the USS Decatur in an operation described by Washington as “unsafe and unprofessional” and by Beijing as a necessary defence of its territory.
“Going by the normal rules of the road for ensuring navigational safety, there’s no way we would see ships getting so close like this,” said Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“Such a move by the PLA naval warship was nothing short of a calculated, deliberate act.”
Koh said that China had been steadily building up its naval capabilities and was keen to show its power in the region.
The near collision, close to Gaven Reef, happened despite China and the US signing a code of conduct for unplanned encounters at sea in 2014 to prevent such incidents. Contact was only averted when the Decatur changed course and sailed away from the Chinese ship.
