Chinese President Xi Jinping is due in the US for a state visit. Source: Getty Images
Five Chinese navy ships were in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, the Pentagon said yesterday, marking the first time the US military has seen them in the area.
The officials were tracking three combat ships, a replenishment vessel and an amphibious landing ship after observing them moving toward the Aleutian Islands, which are split between US and Russian control.
“This would be a first in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands,” a US defence official said of the Chinese ships. “I don’t think we would characterise anything they’re doing as threatening.”
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment.
Chinese officials have complained in the past that the US is meddling in their affairs by flying military jets near a chain of islands known as the Spratlys in the South China Sea.
The presence of the Chinese ships so close to US shores is the latest demonstration of how China’s military is rapidly expanding its operations far from its own coast to oversee the nation’s growing global interests.
US officials were at a loss to explain the Chinese naval movements, which came as President Barack Obama was visiting Alaska and the Arctic region on a three-day trip to address climate change.
The naval operation took place just before Chinese President Xi Jinping was set to preside over a World War II Victory Day parade in Beijing, an event the US and its allies feared would be a showcase of China’s military strength and ambition.
Mr Xi heads to the US this month for a state visit, which has been overshadowed by tensions over Chinese military activity, including alleged cyberattacks on the US and island-building in the South China Sea.
China has repeatedly said that its military activities are not designed to threaten any other nation, but are expanding in tandem with its economic power, as well as its interests and responsibilities around the world.
US officials acknowledged the curious timing of the Chinese ships navigating in the waters near Alaska at a time when Mr Obama was there, but White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Beijing’s intent was still unclear.
The Pentagon official said there were a “variety of opinions” on how to interpret the Chinese ships’ deployment.
“It’s difficult to tell exactly, but it indicates some interest in the Arctic region,” the official said. “It’s different.”
China had made clear its intentions to become a so-called blue- water navy, travelling far from its coastline, said Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser on Asia for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“We better get used to it,” Ms Glaser said. “The Chinese navy is taking on more and more of an expeditionary character … the Chinese navy is going global.”
Ms Glaser noted that she didn’t see the navigation of the Chinese vessels as particularly threatening. “China’s navy is going to increasingly become a blue-water navy. I don’t think we should be alarmed by it.”
The Wall Street Journal
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