China navy criticises dispatch of US destroyers: state media



by Staff Writers



Beijing (AFP) March 13, 2009



Chinese navy officers warned the dispatch of US destroyers to protect a surveillance vessel involved in a standoff with Chinese ships is an inappropriate response, state media said Friday.

A press report quoted unnamed Chinese navy sources as saying the deployment signalled a US intention to "keep on pressing" Beijing in the South China Sea.

"The timing and the extent (of the deployment) have gone beyond what you could call proportionate," one navy officer was quoted saying by the China Daily.

Military tensions have risen after the United States said Chinese boats harassed the US Navy surveillance vessel Impeccable on Sunday in the South China Sea, forcing the ship to take emergency action to avoid a collision.

China, whose state media has accused the Impeccable of spying, has called the US account "totally inaccurate," but has not offered an alternative version of events.

A US official said on Thursday that Washington had decided to provide heavily armed destroyers to escort US surveillance ships operating in the area following the standoff.

"Right now they are going to escort these types of ships for the foreseeable future," a defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

A day after the incident, the destroyer USS Chung-Hoon accompanied the Impeccable, an unarmed ship designed to track submarines, in the same area, the official said.

The US government has protested to Chinese authorities over Sunday's incident, which occurred about 75 miles (120 kilometres) south of Hainan Island.

China, meanwhile, said it had in turn protested to the United States over the Impeccable's "illegal" activities.

President Barack Obama told visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi that it was important to raise the level and frequency of military dialogue between the two sides to "avoid future incidents," the White House said.