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Thursday, September 07, 2006
Chinese cruiser, refueler to visit Pearl Harbor
By Audrey McAvoy
Associated Press
September 6, 2006
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — Chinese warships are scheduled to sail into Pearl Harbor Wednesday for exercises with the U.S. military — the first visit by a Chinese navy ship to a U.S. state in six years.The port call, aimed at deepening understanding between the U.S. and Chinese navies, comes as the two Pacific powers cautiously rebuild military relations that collapsed after a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter collided off the coast of China in 2001.
The top U.S. Pacific commander, Adm. William Fallon, has visited China three times since taking office about 18 months ago to boost contacts and reduce the potential for miscalculations.Fallon has urged China to be more transparent about what it plans to do with its growing military power. He’s called for more Chinese officers to meet their U.S. counterparts and asked China to show the United States more of its capabilities.
The Qingdao, a Luhu-class guided missile cruiser, and the Hongzehu, a refueling ship, are due to arrive at Pearl Harbor for four days of exercises, personnel exchanges, and touring.The vessels are scheduled to head to California on Saturday — either to San Diego or Long Beach — before sailing to the Canadian port of Victoria and the Philippines on their way home.The trip marks the first visit by a Chinese warship to any of the 50 states since 2000, when the Qingdao visited Pearl Harbor and Everett, Wash.
In 2003, two Chinese navy vessels called on Guam, a U.S. territory in the Western Pacific.Capt. Joseph Skinner, who heads the Pacific Command’s Northeast Asia planning, said Tuesday the visit offered the United States an opportunity to learn more about an emerging naval power.“
Many of the countries in the region are concerned when they start buying submarines, when
they start buying cruise missiles, ships,” Skinner said. “Is it a peaceful intention or military projection of power in the future?”Skinner said the United States is encouraging China to use its growing navy for the peaceful end of boosting maritime security.
He said the United States hoped China would join other countries in discouraging pirates and terrorists from attempting to disrupt sea lanes.Off Hawaii, the Qingdao and Hongzehu will practice using internationally accepted communication signals to talk to U.S. ships.The U.S. and Chinese navies will then conduct a search-and-rescue exercise off California.
They may follow up with a second phase of this drill off China’s coast later this year if all goes
well near California.Capt. Jeff Alderson, a Pacific Command spokesman, said the port visit was a building block toward establishing better bilateral ties that could help the United States avoid situations like the spy plane collision.
“We didn’t know who to call. We didn’t know what to do, we couldn’t talk to each other,” Alderson said of the 2001 incident. “If you start with something like this, where you build a common language, common protocols, common procedures, then you start understanding more.”Five years ago, a Chinese fighter veered into a Navy EP-3 surveillance plane in international airspace over the Sea of Japan, resulting in the death of the Chinese pilot and an emergency landing by the damaged American plane.
The United States was angered by China’s decision to imprison the 24 crew members for 11 days on Hainan Island. After releasing them, China refused to permit the United States to fly the damaged plane off the island. Instead it was removed in pieces and reassembled in the United States.
Skinner said the Pacific Command aims to have four Chinese ships visit U.S. ports each year.China, meanwhile, recently agreed to having the U.S. Navy increase its annual port visits to China to four from two, Skinner said.The last U.S. ship to visit China was the USS Blue Ridge, which called on Shanghai in June.
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Don't that beat all! After all of the years when Communist China was one of the "Evil Empires". Back in the late '50's when I was on a DDE out of Pearl Harbor (Desron 25), President Eisenhower denied that we had any US Navy Ships in the area of Formosa. That was during a 6 week underway period when Desron 25 was running a Communist China blockade escorting merchantmen for the Chinese Nationalist (Formosan) government. I was extremely disappointed to first learn that our government "Lied"!
~g
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