The US Navy published this Monday a video that shows the “unsafe interaction”, as he describes it, between an American destroyer and a Chinese warship in the Taiwan Strait on Saturday.
In the video, apparently taken from the angle of the destroyer USS Chung-Hoonit is seen how the Chinese ship practically intercepts the ship crossing its trajectory at a previously detailed distance of 137 meters, according to the US and Canada, whose Navy was carrying out joint maneuvers with the US.
Journalists from the Canadian portal Global News, who were on board the ship HMCS Montreal, observed the incident in the waters of the Taiwan Strait, which occurred while the US Defense Ministers, Lloyd Austin, and his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, attended the Shangril Dialogue -The (June 2-4) in Singapore, the most important annual security forum in Asia.
🇨🇳🇺🇸 Tension in the China Sea: Chinese ship approaches a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait.
The Chinese ship picked up speed and passed in front of the bow of the US destroyer, nearly causing a collision. pic.twitter.com/tLda0eRjwa– ClarOscuro News (@ClarOscuroNews) June 4, 2023
The Taiwan Conflict
Asked about this event, Li denounced on Sunday that “It is not about innocent journeys, but about provocations“, reiterating that China does not give up force to take Taiwana self-governing island that Beijing considers a rebellious province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war.
For his part, the US Secretary of Defense, which supplies the island with weapons and would in principle defend it, assured on Saturday that, although his country does not seek confrontation, “we will not waver in the face of coercion or abuse.” , in line similar to Li.
The United States and Canada assured that were in international waters when the incident occurred on Saturday, while Beijing defended that it was in its territorial waters.
What happened revealed the tensions between the two superpowers and the risks of deficiencies in defense communication, without Austin and Li meeting on the margins of the forum despite meeting there for three days.
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Beijing had denied Washington’s request on Monday for the two to talk in Singapore, blaming the decision on the US, which sanctioned Li in 2018 after accusing him of buying weapons from the Russian state company Rosoboronexport.
Li assured yesterday that he is “open” to communication with the US side, but stressed that “if there is no mutual respect, the dialogue is not productive.” EFE