Pentagon says Chinese vessels harassed U.S. ship

[GroundedSailor]

From the article: "In that incident, which occurred about 125 miles from China's coast in the Yellow Sea..."

Lets be real here. You have a sophisticated surveillance ship in the South China Sea, and about 125 miles off the Chinese coast and you don't expect the Chinese to get ansy?

True, technically the surveillance ship is in international waters because the recognized sovereignty only extends 12 miles offshore to what is called territorial waters. However nations also have a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone which gives them to rights to all minerals / fishing etc within that zone. So nations tend to frown upon outsiders performing surveying activities within their zone.

It would be interesting to see a sophisticated surveillance ship owned by, say Russia or China, sail within 125 miles of New York. You bet the US will be tracking that vessel closely, even though it is legally in international waters and exercising a 'right of free passage'.

What it comes down to is the US ship is spying on the Chinese just outside their back yard and the Chinese are just harassing the US ship in a effort to make it go away and disrupt its spying mission.

These games happen all the time except the Chinese are getting more aggressive.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

It's simply the Chinese trying to provoke a response. They are trying to see what the new administration will do about it.

The Chinese are acting the same as we would if we had a military survailence boat that close to our shores. We *I hope* wouldn't maneuver in front of a boat, or anything like that, but we would have boats nearby without a doubt. We also would have planes in the air watching it as well.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
It's simply the Chinese trying to provoke a response. They are trying to see what the new administration will do about it.

The Chinese are acting the same as we would if we had a military survailence boat that close to our shores. We *I hope* wouldn't maneuver in front of a boat, or anything like that, but we would have boats nearby without a doubt. We also would have planes in the air watching it as well.

Yep. Maybe someone ex-Navy can confirm this but my understanding is that everyone and their mother has had spy ships/surveillance ships in US territorial waters in the past. Our policy (again, from my understanding) has been to just keep a close eye on them.

Pulling stupid stunts like the Chinese are doing is beyond that we would do.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor
From the article: "In that incident, which occurred about 125 miles from China's coast in the Yellow Sea..."

Lets be real here. You have a sophisticated surveillance ship in the South China Sea, and about 125 miles off the Chinese coast and you don't expect the Chinese to get ansy?

True, technically the surveillance ship is in international waters because the recognized sovereignty only extends 12 miles offshore to what is called territorial waters. However nations also have a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone which gives them to rights to all minerals / fishing etc within that zone. So nations tend to frown upon outsiders performing surveying activities within their zone.

It would be interesting to see a sophisticated surveillance ship owned by, say Russia or China, sail within 125 miles of New York. You bet the US will be tracking that vessel closely, even though it is legally in international waters and exercising a 'right of free passage'.

What it comes down to is the US ship is spying on the Chinese just outside their back yard and the Chinese are just harassing the US ship in a effort to make it go away and disrupt its spying mission.

These games happen all the time except the Chinese are getting more aggressive.

^^ This. The event in question is nothing compared to the hijinks that the ChiComms have been doing with Taiwan and the US for years.

That said, the Chinese are too smart not to know that their Navy isn't remotely comparable to US standards.

 

[EagleKeeper]

The Chinese pulled this stunt 8 years ago to see what we would do.

They lost a MIG & pilot to a P3; the Chinese were able to tear down the P3 to see what we had inside.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: alchemize
lulz....

This sounds like the intro to gay porn.

you mean gay chinese porn....

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: Babbles

Originally posted by: brandonb
The USA needs to grow a backbone. Oh noes, the chinese harrassed our boat in international waters.

Big friggin deal.

Wait, so you are telling us that it is perfectally acceptable to harass other ships in open international water? Sorry, but that is just crazy stupid and ill-informed.

Hell even on a lake getting within 25 feet of another boat and zipping around them may get you some pretty damn ugly looks. I couldn't imagine this happening on open waters.

You need to remember that we have all ages on these forums and probably some who are way too young...like possibly Brandonb...lol

 

[brandonb]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
You need to remember that we have all ages on these forums and probably some who are way too young...like possibly Brandonb...lol

I'm 32... So, I guess if that makes me young.

And I've been around the block to know that if the Chinese are harrassing our boats, its probably for a reason. Like Common Courtesy said, its like our P3 incident. When we are sitting all around their borders listening in, I'm sure they get aggravated. We would be if Chinese were 150 miles from our borders with military vessels spying on us. I'm sure we'd harrass them too, if not more.

 

[GroundedSailor]

Here's some more information on this issue.

Close call off South China Sea
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 4:13 PM ET

By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Chief Pentagon Correspondent, and Courtney Kube, NBC News Producer

In a dangerous high-seas game of chicken, five Chinese boats harassed and came perilously close to colliding with a U.S. Naval surveillance ship off the coast of Hainan Island Sunday, after the Chinese military ordered the ship to leave the area or "suffer the consequences." The Navy dispatched a destroyer, the USS Chung-Hoon, to the vicinity as a precaution.

Pentagon and military officials tell NBC News the unarmed USNS Impeccable surveillance ship was "operating legally in international waters," towing an underwater sonar bouy, trolling for Chinese submarines when three Chinese military ships and two Chinese trawlers began to harass the American ship.

The five Chinese vessels first surrounded the Impeccable, and one Chinese ship passed dangerously close, within 25 feet, before the two trawlers pulled to a stop directly in front of the Impeccable which "came damned close to colliding" with the Chinese ships before making an emergency stop. The crew aboard one of the Chinese ships also used a grappling hook to try to snag the tow line that was dragging the sonar bouy through the water.

After repeated attempts to reach the Chinese ships over "bridge-to-bridge" radios failed, the crew of the unarmed Impeccable took defensive measures, turning firehoses on one of the Chinese ships, at which point the Chinese crewmembers on deck stripped down to their underwear.

The incident Sunday followed a series of provocatives manuevers by Chinese ships and planes aimed at two U.S. Navy surveiilance ships:

- March 7: A PRC intelligence collection ship made a bridge to bridge call to the USNS Impeccable, calling their operations illegal and telling them to leave the area or "suffer the consequences"
- March 5: a Chinese frigate approached the USNS Impeccable, crossing its bow within about 100 yards; about 2 hours later, a Chinese Y-12 aircraft conducted 11 fly-bys at a low altitude (about 600 yards)
- March 4: a Chinese Bureau of Fisheries Patrol vessel used a high intensity spotlight to harass an ocean surveillance ship, the USNS Victorious, shining it on the ship and at the crew (the ship was operating about 125 nautical miles off the coast of China); the ship then crossed the Victorious' bow in darkness without warning; finally, a Chinese Y-12 surveillance aircraft conducted 12 fly-bys at a low altitude (about 400 feet).

The Chinese have long objected to U.S. Navy surveillance ships operating off the coast of China. U.S. military officials insist the operations are legal, and in this case the Impeccable was operating in international waters at least 75 miles off the coast of Hainan Island, well outside the internationally-recognized 12-mile territorial limit. In April 2001, in a similar incident a U.S. Navy P-3 plane was on a submarine surveillance mission over the South China sea when it collided with a Chinese MIG fighter jet and was forced to make and emergency landing on Hainan Island. The Chinese Mig crashed into the sea and the pilot was killed. The Chinese held the 24 Navy crewmembers for 11 days before releasing them, but refused to allow the U.S. to repair and fly the P-3 off the island. The P-3 was instead dismantled, returned in pieces to the U.S. where it was reassembled and returned to service.

The U.S. is expected to lodge a protest over the incident, but there may not be much public outcry from the U.S. government. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would only say today that "We are going to continue to operate in those international waters and we expect the Chinese to observe international laws around them." At a time when the Obama administration is attempting to cozy up to China diplomatically, it appears the administration has no desire to make any sizeable waves over this issue.

http://deepbackground.msnbc.ms...009/03/09/1829183.aspx

Like I posted earlier, these are games that get played out all the time. Yes the Chinese are getting more visibly aggressive but so would the US if the Chinese were constantly snooping 75 miles off the US coast, while 'legally in international waters'.

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: Robor
Something tells me there's more to the story.

I am sure there is a lot more to it. That ship is for detection of submarines, the attempt to classify it as a more "merchant" type ship is a deliberate obfuscation. I wouldn't doubt the surface ships were running interference for something going on underwater.

This ship is nothing more than an upgrade of the old SURTASS ships.

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/surtass.htm

How/where was it classified as "merchant?"

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: Common Courtesy
The Chinese pulled this stunt 8 years ago to see what we would do.

They lost a MIG & pilot to a P3; the Chinese were able to tear down the P3 to see what we had inside.

Indeed. Refer to my link above...

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: brandonb

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
You need to remember that we have all ages on these forums and probably some who are way too young...like possibly Brandonb...lol

I'm 32... So, I guess if that makes me young.

And I've been around the block to know that if the Chinese are harrassing our boats, its probably for a reason. Like Common Courtesy said, its like our P3 incident. When we are sitting all around their borders listening in, I'm sure they get aggravated. We would be if Chinese were 150 miles from our borders with military vessels spying on us. I'm sure we'd harrass them too, if not more.

Your a certified goof ball.....
Yep and the reason being they just want to harrass our boats!So we should become isolationist because????

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: brandonb

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
You need to remember that we have all ages on these forums and probably some who are way too young...like possibly Brandonb...lol

I'm 32... So, I guess if that makes me young.

And I've been around the block to know that if the Chinese are harrassing our boats, its probably for a reason. Like Common Courtesy said, its like our P3 incident. When we are sitting all around their borders listening in, I'm sure they get aggravated. We would be if Chinese were 150 miles from our borders with military vessels spying on us. I'm sure we'd harrass them too, if not more.

You have to be a complete and utter moron not to believe that the Chinese and/or other governments are not doing the same to us.

 

[Steeplerot]

Soooo, they were just innocently trolling for long hard objects full of seamen that turned into a naked deck party with dudes getting water shot on them?

teh gay!!11!!

 

[cyclohexane]

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor
Here's some more information on this issue.

Close call off South China Sea
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 4:13 PM ET

By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Chief Pentagon Correspondent, and Courtney Kube, NBC News Producer

In a dangerous high-seas game of chicken, five Chinese boats harassed and came perilously close to colliding with a U.S. Naval surveillance ship off the coast of Hainan Island Sunday, after the Chinese military ordered the ship to leave the area or "suffer the consequences." The Navy dispatched a destroyer, the USS Chung-Hoon, to the vicinity as a precaution.

Pentagon and military officials tell NBC News the unarmed USNS Impeccable surveillance ship was "operating legally in international waters," towing an underwater sonar bouy, trolling for Chinese submarines when three Chinese military ships and two Chinese trawlers began to harass the American ship.

The five Chinese vessels first surrounded the Impeccable, and one Chinese ship passed dangerously close, within 25 feet, before the two trawlers pulled to a stop directly in front of the Impeccable which "came damned close to colliding" with the Chinese ships before making an emergency stop. The crew aboard one of the Chinese ships also used a grappling hook to try to snag the tow line that was dragging the sonar bouy through the water.

After repeated attempts to reach the Chinese ships over "bridge-to-bridge" radios failed, the crew of the unarmed Impeccable took defensive measures, turning firehoses on one of the Chinese ships, at which point the Chinese crewmembers on deck stripped down to their underwear.

The incident Sunday followed a series of provocatives manuevers by Chinese ships and planes aimed at two U.S. Navy surveiilance ships:

- March 7: A PRC intelligence collection ship made a bridge to bridge call to the USNS Impeccable, calling their operations illegal and telling them to leave the area or "suffer the consequences"
- March 5: a Chinese frigate approached the USNS Impeccable, crossing its bow within about 100 yards; about 2 hours later, a Chinese Y-12 aircraft conducted 11 fly-bys at a low altitude (about 600 yards)
- March 4: a Chinese Bureau of Fisheries Patrol vessel used a high intensity spotlight to harass an ocean surveillance ship, the USNS Victorious, shining it on the ship and at the crew (the ship was operating about 125 nautical miles off the coast of China); the ship then crossed the Victorious' bow in darkness without warning; finally, a Chinese Y-12 surveillance aircraft conducted 12 fly-bys at a low altitude (about 400 feet).

The Chinese have long objected to U.S. Navy surveillance ships operating off the coast of China. U.S. military officials insist the operations are legal, and in this case the Impeccable was operating in international waters at least 75 miles off the coast of Hainan Island, well outside the internationally-recognized 12-mile territorial limit. In April 2001, in a similar incident a U.S. Navy P-3 plane was on a submarine surveillance mission over the South China sea when it collided with a Chinese MIG fighter jet and was forced to make and emergency landing on Hainan Island. The Chinese Mig crashed into the sea and the pilot was killed. The Chinese held the 24 Navy crewmembers for 11 days before releasing them, but refused to allow the U.S. to repair and fly the P-3 off the island. The P-3 was instead dismantled, returned in pieces to the U.S. where it was reassembled and returned to service.

The U.S. is expected to lodge a protest over the incident, but there may not be much public outcry from the U.S. government. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would only say today that "We are going to continue to operate in those international waters and we expect the Chinese to observe international laws around them." At a time when the Obama administration is attempting to cozy up to China diplomatically, it appears the administration has no desire to make any sizeable waves over this issue.

http://deepbackground.msnbc.ms...009/03/09/1829183.aspx

Like I posted earlier, these are games that get played out all the time. Yes the Chinese are getting more visibly aggressive but so would the US if the Chinese were constantly snooping 75 miles off the US coast, while 'legally in international waters'.

QFT.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: brandonb

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
You need to remember that we have all ages on these forums and probably some who are way too young...like possibly Brandonb...lol

I'm 32... So, I guess if that makes me young.

And I've been around the block to know that if the Chinese are harrassing our boats, its probably for a reason. Like Common Courtesy said, its like our P3 incident. When we are sitting all around their borders listening in, I'm sure they get aggravated. We would be if Chinese were 150 miles from our borders with military vessels spying on us. I'm sure we'd harrass them too, if not more.

You have to be a complete and utter moron not to believe that the Chinese and/or other governments are not doing the same to us.

well thats what people like brabdonb believe.......we should mind out own buisness and all will be well......lol

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor
From the article: "In that incident, which occurred about 125 miles from China's coast in the Yellow Sea..."

Lets be real here. You have a sophisticated surveillance ship in the South China Sea, and about 125 miles off the Chinese coast and you don't expect the Chinese to get ansy?

True, technically the surveillance ship is in international waters because the recognized sovereignty only extends 12 miles offshore to what is called territorial waters. However nations also have a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone which gives them to rights to all minerals / fishing etc within that zone. So nations tend to frown upon outsiders performing surveying activities within their zone.

It would be interesting to see a sophisticated surveillance ship owned by, say Russia or China, sail within 125 miles of New York. You bet the US will be tracking that vessel closely, even though it is legally in international waters and exercising a 'right of free passage'.

What it comes down to is the US ship is spying on the Chinese just outside their back yard and the Chinese are just harassing the US ship in a effort to make it go away and disrupt its spying mission.

These games happen all the time except the Chinese are getting more aggressive.

wow, you really don't know much about routine intelligence ops do you.

 

[GroundedSailor]

Originally posted by: lupi

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor
From the article: "In that incident, which occurred about 125 miles from China's coast in the Yellow Sea..."

Lets be real here. You have a sophisticated surveillance ship in the South China Sea, and about 125 miles off the Chinese coast and you don't expect the Chinese to get ansy?

True, technically the surveillance ship is in international waters because the recognized sovereignty only extends 12 miles offshore to what is called territorial waters. However nations also have a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone which gives them to rights to all minerals / fishing etc within that zone. So nations tend to frown upon outsiders performing surveying activities within their zone.

It would be interesting to see a sophisticated surveillance ship owned by, say Russia or China, sail within 125 miles of New York. You bet the US will be tracking that vessel closely, even though it is legally in international waters and exercising a 'right of free passage'.

What it comes down to is the US ship is spying on the Chinese just outside their back yard and the Chinese are just harassing the US ship in a effort to make it go away and disrupt its spying mission.

These games happen all the time except the Chinese are getting more aggressive.

wow, you really don't know much about routine intelligence ops do you.

Yup, I'm no spy. I simply referred to these activities as 'games'. Enlighten me.

 

[jpeyton]

Complaining about ticky-tack stuff like this makes the US military sound like a bunch of babies.

 

[shiner]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: brandonb

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
You need to remember that we have all ages on these forums and probably some who are way too young...like possibly Brandonb...lol

I'm 32... So, I guess if that makes me young.

And I've been around the block to know that if the Chinese are harrassing our boats, its probably for a reason. Like Common Courtesy said, its like our P3 incident. When we are sitting all around their borders listening in, I'm sure they get aggravated. We would be if Chinese were 150 miles from our borders with military vessels spying on us. I'm sure we'd harrass them too, if not more.

You have to be a complete and utter moron not to believe that the Chinese and/or other governments are not doing the same to us.

The correct word is apologist.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Complaining about ticky-tack stuff like this makes the US military sound like a bunch of babies.

:roll:

You just hate the military. Complaining about stuff like this is good because the public would otherwise be unaware of it. At least when something does happen, we can be like "they started it and have a history of starting shit."

 

[Imdmn04]

Typical arm flexing bullshit between two super powers.

U.S. aint gonna do shit, neither is China, a dog needs to have a bark or two every once in a while.

This news is pretty much no news.

 

[Elias824]

Even under the argument that its out fault for having a ship there, its still stilly if they have a problem with it, ramming our a ship is hardly a solution to it. What happened to that thing obama always talks about, diplomacy I think its called. Im sure lots of other countries are watching us quite closely, didn't the Chinese even hack into the pentagon?

 

[IronWing]

What happened to them non-lethal weapons we developed like the noise maker and the industrial strength silly string launcher? This would be an excellent occasion to deploy them. The incident does show what happens when you depend on other countries to buy your junk debt. Our options are limited. From one perspective, it shows the US has lost prestige in the world. On the other hand, it shows the value in globalizing the world economy: military action becomes very costly in terms of trade and finance, not just mere lives and hardware.

 

[brandonb]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: brandonb

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
You need to remember that we have all ages on these forums and probably some who are way too young...like possibly Brandonb...lol

I'm 32... So, I guess if that makes me young.

And I've been around the block to know that if the Chinese are harrassing our boats, its probably for a reason. Like Common Courtesy said, its like our P3 incident. When we are sitting all around their borders listening in, I'm sure they get aggravated. We would be if Chinese were 150 miles from our borders with military vessels spying on us. I'm sure we'd harrass them too, if not more.

You have to be a complete and utter moron not to believe that the Chinese and/or other governments are not doing the same to us.

well thats what people like brabdonb believe.......we should mind out own buisness and all will be well......lol

I'm called a moron, and yet you stick words into my mouth. When did I say anything about minding our own business. The only thing I said is if we are there trolling around spying on them, and they come harrass us, that we have no reason to bitch about it.

If you poke a dog enough it will eventually take a nip at you. I think its funny that they got undressed and mooned our sailors and yet people get up in arms and how its "serious business."

People are just retarded sometimes.