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US Navy’s Hong Kong port calls likely to be scuppered as ties with China’s military continue to deteriorate
- One military source says the PLA believes the Americans are using the visits as an excuse to monitor its ships
- This issue may have been one factor in the collapse of recent talks to discuss maritime safety
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In 2020, no American warships visited Hong Kong, a situation that is likely to continue after the Covid-19 pandemic ends and relations deteriorate further.
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A Beijing-based military source said the People’s Liberation Army had not been happy about the US Navy visiting in recent years and claimed the American forces had used port calls as an excuse to stay behind in the area to conduct freedom of navigation operations and monitor the PLA’s exercises.
“It’s one of the things that caused the failure of the scheduled Military Maritime Consultative Agreement due to the big divergence between the two militaries,” the source, who requested anonymity, said.
The two sides have traded accusations after the planned conference to discuss air and sea safety collapsed when the People’s Liberation Army failed to show up.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said it was the latest illustration that “China does not honour its agreements”, but the PLA said that the US had tried to proceed without an agreed agenda.
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