The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet rejected Thursday a news report that the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk was confronted by a Chinese destroyer and a submarine after the carrier was denied a port call in Hong Kong last November.

“When we saw that report, I was surprised,” Adm Timothy Keating told reporters at the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong. [Full Text]

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A Chinese submarine tracked a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier for 28 hours in the Taiwan Strait in November, while the U.S. carrier launched an aircraft in response to prepare for any contingency, according to the Tuesday edition of Taiwan’s China Times newspaper.

According to the report, the Chinese Song-class submarine was operating southeast of Taiwan on Nov. 23 and shadowed the USS Kitty Hawk, which entered the strait while returning to Yokosuka after China canceled its long-scheduled port call in Hong Kong.

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Read the rest of Chinese Sub, Kitty Hawk in Standoff – Toshinao Ishii (48 words)

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Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of US Pacific Command, and James Shinn, a newly minted assistant secretary of Defense for the region, left Saturday for a week-long trip to China. Their visit will include high-level meetings in which the US aims to better understand the PLA’s decisionmaking process and to try to answer the Pentagon’s broader questions about China’s rapid military buildup and its intentions toward neighboring Taiwan.

But the elephant in the room may be a series of incidents last fall after the PLA refused to allow the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying ships into the Hong Kong port for a planned Thanksgiving visit. The PLA said it was a “misunderstanding,” and a day later agreed to allow the ships in. But the Kitty Hawk had already departed, US officials say, disappointing more than 300 family members of American sailors who had flown there to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones.

[Image: AP file photo of the U.S. Navy's Adm. Timothy Keating, via the Christian Science Monitor]

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Diplomatic friction between the United States and the People’s Republic of China has grown more palpable during the past week. A series of high profile events involving the port of Hong Kong have unfolded on the international stage, leaving observers, political analysts and military planners contemplating the significance of these incidents. [Full Text]

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The diplomatic friction over China’s refusal to allow U.S. Navy warships to enter Hong Kong harbor is the kind of incident that a crisis hot line ordered three months ago by President Bush and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao might have averted.

The trouble is, the hot line is not installed yet.

“There was an agreement that we would work to establish that hot line,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday. “I don’t think it’s up and running yet, but this underscores the need for it.” [Full Text]

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China blocked the visit of a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group and other American warships to Hong Kong last week in retaliation for the Bush administration’s proposed upgrading of Taiwan’s Patriot antimissile batteries, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Beijing also denied that Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had told President George W. Bush in a meeting Wednesday that the canceled ship visits were a “misunderstanding,” as the White House had reported after the talks.

“Reports that Foreign Minister Yang said in the United States that it was a misunderstanding do not accord with the facts,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said in Beijing on Thursday, adding that China had “grave concern” about U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan. [Full Text]

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Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told President George W. Bush on Wednesday that Beijing’s refusal to let a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier into Hong Kong was a “misunderstanding,” the White House said. The Defence Department said it had issued a formal complaint to China and that

Beijing still had not provided sufficient explanation for blocking the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, and eight ships travelling with it, entry to Hong Kong for a long-planned Thanksgiving holiday visit. Bush brought up the issue with China’s foreign minister in a meeting at the White House. [Full Text]

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According to sources in China, in recent days the East and South China Sea fleets of the People’s Liberation Army [PLA] have carried out a large-scale “campaign-level [zhanyi ji] naval exercise”; the two big fleets staged a joint combat exercise in the Pacific east of Taiwan; the recent aviation controls in east and south China, which are related to this major exercise, will end tomorrow. Further reports claim that the PLA fleet on exercise had a “chance encounter” with the USS Kitty Hawk battle group which was heading for Hong Kong.

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Read the rest of PLA Exercise Makes Pincer Attack on Taiwan; Two Major Fleets Sent; ‘Chance Encounter’ with Kitty Hawk – Ming Pao (926 words)

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China’s refusal to allow a U.S. aircraft carrier to dock in Hong Kong on Thanksgiving — a port call planned months in advance — was probably a response to President Bush’s appearance with the Dalai Lama last month, a longtime specialist in U.S.-China relations said Friday.

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Read the rest of China’s Naval Rebuff Could Be Reply to Dalai Lama’s Medal – Maureen Fan (119 words)

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China’s decision to block the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk from a long-planned Thanksgiving visit to Hong Kong, before relenting 24 hours later “on humanitarian grounds,” had all the markings of a diplomatic slap in the face, analysts say. It just wasn’t terribly clear whose face it was aimed at.

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Read the rest of China’s Snub of U.S. Vessel Sends Murky Message – Mark Magnier (89 words)

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