Chinese Ship Spies on U.S.-Led Drills

Beijing Shadows Naval Exercises in Which It Is Already Participating

 July 19, 2014

BEIJING—China has sent an uninvited surveillance ship to international waters off Hawaii to monitor U.S.-led naval exercises, even though the Chinese navy is participating in the biennial drills, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said Saturday.

China's debut at the monthlong Rim of the Pacific, or Rimpac, exercises has been hailed by Chinese and U.S. officials as evidence of an improving military relationship, despite escalating tensions over territorial disputes in Asia.

But the presence of the surveillance ship, which can monitor other vessels' electronic signals and communications, underlines the tensions between the two sides, and could harden political opposition in the U.S. to closer military ties with China.

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"The U.S. Pacific Fleet has been monitoring a Chinese Navy surveillance ship operating in the vicinity of Hawaii outside U.S. territorial seas," Capt. Darryn James, chief spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a statement.

"It has not entered the territorial seas of the U.S. and it is in accordance with international law regarding freedom of navigation," he told The Wall Street Journal. "It's not been disruptive to Rimpac and we don't expect it to be."

China's defense ministry said the movements of Chinese navy ships outside other countries' territorial waters complied with international law and practice.

"China respects the rights enjoyed by all relevant coastal states under international law, and hopes that relevant countries respect the rights enjoyed by Chinese ships according to the law," said an official in the defense ministry's news department.

Capt. James said the surveillance ship was in international waters but within an exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, which according to an international maritime law extends 200 nautical miles from the U.S. coast. He said some of the Rimpac exercises were being conducted in international waters.

The U.S. maintains that all vessels, including military ones, have a right to freedom of navigation in any country's EEZ, and it often conducts surveillance operations just outside China's territorial waters, which extend 12 nautical miles from the coast under international maritime law.

China has long demanded that the U.S. cease surveillance operations within the Chinese EEZ. But China sent a ship inside Hawaii's EEZ to observe the last Rimpac exercises in 2012, to which it wasn't invited, according to U.S. officials.

"We are not surprised that it's here," Capt. James said, adding that no other Rimpac participant had sent a surveillance vessel to observe the exercises. "We've taken all precautions necessary to protect our critical information."

He described the ship as an auxiliary general intelligence—or AGI—vessel and said it was similar to the one that China sent to observe Rimpac in 2012, but declined to give further details about the ship.

He also declined to say precisely where it was, but said that it had arrived in the area after the formal start of Rimpac on June 26 and before participating ships set to sea to begin their maneuvers more than a week ago. The drills end Aug 1.

The Chinese navy hadn't informed the U.S. of its plan to send the surveillance ship to the area during the exercises but wasn't obliged to do so because it was operating in international waters, he said.

Rimpac, which is held every two years, is the world's largest joint naval exercise and this year includes 22 nations, about 48 ships, six submarines, 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel. China is contributing four navy ships, two helicopters and 1,100 personnel, making it the second largest force after the U.S.

China first asked to join Rimpac in 2012 and was invited later that year in a move U.S. officials said was designed to improve the overall military relationship and to encourage the Chinese navy to observe international norms at sea.

But China's participation is controversial because the drills also involve U.S. allies Japan and the Philippines. Their territorial disputes with China have escalated over the last two years and sometimes threatened to flare into conflict.

There are also legal restrictions on U.S. military cooperation with China, principally the National Defense Authorization Act of 2000, which is designed to prevent China from gaining access to U.S. military know-how.

China is therefore only participating in relatively simple noncombat exercises in areas such as counter-piracy, search and rescue, and replenishment at sea as well as basic maneuvering alongside other ships.