Hong Kong Harbor (Photo courtesy of http://www.ussschenectadylst1185.org/)China, which denied the USS Kitty Hawk and her Carrier Strike Group permission to dock in Hong Kong for Thanksgiving (see that story on this blog at:
http://mt-milcom.blogspot.com/2007/11/china-denies-kitty-hawk-csg-access-to.html), also recently refused access to two minesweeping ships seeking refuge from a storm, the commander of U.S. Forces Pacific said yesterday in a Pentagon video conference.
The USS Patriot and USS Guardian were forced to refuel at sea and return to their homeport of Sasebo in Japan when China refused their request for shelter in Hong Kong, Admiral Timothy Keating told reporters in Washington yesterday.
The incidents came about two weeks after Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited China seeking greater cooperation between the two countries and more transparency from the government in Beijing about its military buildup.
China's denial violated an "unwritten law among seamen that if someone is in need" you give them safe harbor, Keating said in a video conference from his headquarters at Camp Smith, Hawaii, according to a DoD transcript. Keating said that while the decision to refuse the Kitty Hawk access was "perplexing" and "troublesome," the minesweeper incident was "more disturbing."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement today that all dockings by U.S. naval ships in Hong Kong must be "applied for in advance" and in accordance with the territory's laws. "In this case, the applications were not made in advance and in a timely fashion."