The U.S coast guard recently released a
set of pictures of the legend class
cutter USCGC Bertholf shadowing a group
of four Chinese warships sailing in America's exclusive economic zone near
alaska's the Aleutian Islands back in August. The emergence of these pictures follows
the editor-in-chief of Global Times, a
newspaper under the direct control of
the chinese communist party taking to
twitter to criticize U.S Navy operations
in the Pacific that routinely challenge
many of Beijing's widely disputed
maritime territorial claims. Especially
in the South China Sea and the Taiwan
strait and worn of tit for tat
activities on the part of the people's
liberation army navy.
The pictures were shot between august, 29
in august, 30, 2021, but were only released
through the U.S military's defense
visual information distribution service DVIDS Website more recently. The captions to the photographs, which
have now curiously been removed from DVIDS say they were taken in
international waters inside the U.S exclusive economic zone, eez off the Aleutian Island, Sikh coast.
It's not clear if any chinese vessels
are still inside the u.s eez off the
coast of Alaska which stretches well out
into the pacific ocean, but the war zone
has already reached out to the U.S coast
guard. For more information, the exact identities of the people's
liberation army navy plan ships that
were inside the eez in august are
unclear. Nowever the caption to one of the
pictures seen at the top of this story
says that the planned task force
included a guided missile cruiser, a
guided missile destroyer, a general
intelligence vessel and an auxiliary
vessel.
Independent observers have already noted
that japanese authorities had reported
four planned warships transiting east to
west through the soya strait which would
have pointed them in the general
direction of the eez off Alaska on August 24. Those vessels included a type 055
destroyer which the U.S Military has
categorized as a cruiser in the past, as
well as a type 05 2D destroyer, a type
903 replenishment ship and an
intelligence-gathering ship with the
hull number 799.
This would align perfectly with the
coast guard's description of the four Chinese ships sailing near the Aleutians. It also represents a very capable
multi-purpose task force. The 055 in
particular is the plan's most modern
surface warship and has more than 100
vertical launch system cells that can be
loaded as required with a variety of
surface-to-air anti-ship and land-attack
missiles.
What level of interaction the coast
guard has had or may still be having
with these chinese ships is unclear. The caption for another one of the
pictures seen it shows
the Bertholf's Commanding officer, captain tim brown as he communicates
with a Chinese people's liberation army
navy ship operating as part of a
four-ship planned task force and that
interactions between coast guard cutters Bertholf and Kimball. Another legend
class cutter which is also operating in
the area and the planned vessels were
safe and professional and verbal
communications were in accordance with
international standards.
The appearance of these pictures online
does notably follow a tweet from Global Times editor-in-chief Who Zaigen on Sept
8, WHO was reacting directly to other
posts on that social media site from
official u.s navy accounts that
highlighted the arrival of the Carl Vinson carrier strike group in the South China Sea in order to uphold the free
and open use of Indo-Pacific waters. The Chinese government has expansive
territorial claims over this body of
water which are widely rejected by other
countries in the region and the
international community at large.
Hopefully when chinese warships pass
through the Caribbean Sea or show up
near Hawaii and Guam one day, the U.S will uphold the same standard of freedom
of navigation who wrote on twitter, that day will come soon. Also on Sept 8, the U.S Navy's Arleigh Burke-Class destroyer USS Benfold had
conducted what is known as a freedom of
navigation patrol or FoNOps within 12
miles of mischief reef which chinese
authorities say is their territorial
waters in the spratly island chain in
the South China Sea.
The service also denied reports that Chinese forces had chased Benfold out of
the area. This all followed the Chinese
government's announcement on Sept, one
that it had instituted new rules
requiring many categories of foreign
vessels not just warships to identify
themselves and provided additional
information after entering the country's
territorial waters.
The Chinese government has established a
number of made-made outposts in the South China Sea, including in mischief
reef which it uses together with the
increasingly regular deployment of
various maritime forces to assert its
claims in the region. The U.S Navy, as well as the coast guard
in more recent years regularly conducts FoNOps in the South China Sea and
elsewhere in the pacific to challenge
those disputed territorial claims.
Global Times whose comments were as much
about FoNOps in general as the news
about the USS Carl Vinson and her strike
group specifically. The U.S navy's office of the chief of
information had already
responded via its own official twitter
account to whose tweet.
The at U.S Navy has upheld the standards
of freedom of navigation longer than the PLA Navy has existed Chinfo's initial response read. This was followed by a succession of
tweets detailing various instances in
recent years where chinese warships have
sailed in international waters in the
general vicinity of the United States
without any interference from the U.S Military.
The coast guard's photos of planned
vessels in the us eez off Alaska present
yet another example of these kinds of
interactions. This isn't the first time Chinese
warships have appeared in international
waters off the coast of that state
either.
In 2015 the plan sent five ships into
the Bering Sea North of the Aleutians
during a visit there by then-president Barack Obama. In addition it's worth noting that Russian warships have sailed relatively
close to u.s territorial waters, including off Hawaii and Alaska over the
years without issue. This includes an instance just earlier
this year when a task force from Russia's Pacific fleet sailed within at
least 34 miles of the Hawaiian Islands.
Unlike the chinese government and its
claims in the south china sea, the u.s
government does not assert that vast
sections of the pacific near Hawaii or Guam or any large portion of the
caribbean is in fact its territorial
waters. Of course in all of these instances the
u.s military has also closely monitored
this foreign naval activity.
A new overarching naval strategy
document that the US Navy together with
the u.s marine corps and u.s coast guard
put out last year did put heavy emphasis
on monitoring and documenting aggressive
maritime activity on the part of China
as well as Russia going forward.
Regardless, the appearance of the Chinese
ships near the Aleutian Islands to
simply underscore the increasing blue
water capabilities of the plan in the Pacific. As well as elsewhere around the
world. If this chinese naval task force spotted
sailing near the aleutians ultimately
continued further north it could be
headed to or at least near the ever-more
strategic arctic region.
This is an area that is also reportedly
seeing increased Chinese maritime
activity, as well as a growing presence
on the part of the russian military. The United States is hardly the only one
facing the prospect of increasingly
routine planned naval activities closer
to its shores either.
just yesterday, the japanese ministry of
defence announced that japan maritime
self-defense force ships and aircraft
had been tracking what is believed to be
a chinese submarine sailing in a
contiguous zone off a Mami Oshima Island. The Mami is situated between the Japanese Islands of Kyushu and Okinawa.
A contiguous zone is defined as the 12
miles beyond a country's territorial
waters where under international law. A coastal state may exercise the control
necessary to prevent the infringement of
its customs, fiscal, immigration, or
sanitary laws and regulations within its
territory or territorial sea and punish
infringement of those laws and
regulations committed within its
territory or territorial sea.
So no matter what global times whose
comments about increasing chinese naval
operations in waters around the united
states as well as other countries, particularly in the pacific is a reality
now.
Whether the u.s military responds any
differently going forward?? Especially if
the plan continues to step up this kind
of activity remains to be seen but at
this point the u.s navy appears to
welcome the activity as it validates its
own freedom of navigation operations.
0 Comments