The United States military released a video on Monday of what it described as an “unsafe” manoeuvre by a Chinese warship in the Taiwan Strait on the weekend amid sharpening rhetoric between the two powers.
During the incident, which took place on Saturday, a Chinese navy ship, Luyang III, is seen cutting sharply across the path of a US destroyer which slowed down to avoid a collision. The Chinese ship then straightened up and continued on a parallel course.
The US destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal were conducting a so-called “freedom of navigation” transit of the strait between Taiwan and mainland China.
The Chinese guided-missile destroyer overtook the Chung-Hoon on its port side, then veered across its bow at a distance of some 137 meters (150 yards), according to the US Indo-Pacific Command.
China claims the democratic self-governing island of Taiwan as part of its own territory, and maintains the strait is part of its exclusive economic zone, while the US and its allies regularly sail through and fly over the passage to emphasise their contention that the waters are international.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said the actions violated maritime rules of safe passage in international waters.
Article from www.aljazeera.com