Negative. They're not warships. They're auxiliary ships used by the Navy, but manned mostly by civilian crews. Warships are designated USS not USNS. This stuff happens quite a bit and will not slow any time soon. The reason it is being brought up is because their maneuvering could endanger the crew, ship and equipment on board, which is a major concern of the government. We'd be doing the same if they were near us. Its the nature of the game.
I am not even going to argue that the U.S. media is impartial or fair, but in this case the "U.S. media" merely relayed the official U.S. government position on the incident, which of course lays the blame on China (duh!) At the same time, these same news outlets relayed China's point of view as well when the Chinese response was made available. I am talking about op-eds here, which will clearly take the U.S. side of things. I am talking about the news reports we first heard about, which were entirely from the American point of view, since American officials were the ones who brought the incident to our attention. I am not sure how the Chinese media portrayed the incident, but I am guessing it was entirely in line with PRC point of view as well. I just hope these Chinese ships do not try the same rendezvous tactics with a Navy destroyer. Then we might have a not so minor scuffle on our hands (I say scuffle because there will never be a full-scale war between the two nations). But so far, the Chinese seem to be doing a pretty good job of intentionally targeting/harassing only surveillance-type ships and planes. I have not heard of an F-16 getting harassed as of yet.
They wouldn't do it with a destroyer because of obvious reasons as well as the destroyers not doing the same type of mission. As for escorts, these ships have ships on call for help, but they're a good ways away.
I am pretty sure China is very concerned about American surveillance (aka spying) of their various activities. I am not excusing it or justifying it in any way, but I am going to guess that one of the largest reasons the U.S. (and Russia) spy on China is the complete lack of Chinese transparency in regards to their defense budget and military capabilities. Countries tend to get really antsy about what they don't know for sure in regards to their arch rivals. There is a reason as to why the U.S. and the former USSR tried to communicate about their respective abilities. Miscommunication or a misperception about who has what can very well lead to conflict. It is just the nature of the beast. So while Chinese spying efforts in the U.S. are mostly concerned with technology theft, U.S. and Russian spying efforts on China are mostly concerned with assessment of capabilities, perhaps to be able to develop countermeasures or at least to know what to expect in the very unlikely case of a war.
What a waste of D&D resource. Of course no navy destroyer or F-16 is getting harassed because none has been inching close to PRC's costal line (200 nautical miles of EEZ). That would be an act of war. Even the morons in U.S. media understand the need to stress that all those vehicles are UNARMED.
Ally or enemy you definitely want to know what other countries are capable of and how we can prepare for them. We're the big dog on the block and they may be next. In order for us to be successful in any conflict, we must be prepared. They do the same thing. Also what is somewhat going under the radar in the story is that they tried to "hook" the equipment the ship was using. While they wouldn't have been able to capture it, they could have damaged it. Pretty expensive stuff.
LOL ... brah, that would be you and Deckard, who are eager to go off on a tangent with "don't-you-know-we-have-bigger-penis" bravado.
China's military is getting stronger and it is only a matter of time before they start projecting their influence. Do you expect when China's economy is as big or bigger than the US by 2050 that China would not have a military that is some what close to the US in strength? How did US used to handle the Soviet military presence? It won't be like the cold war but neither will the US be able to run unopposed across the oceans.
LOL? Where did this crap come from. I see nothing in my posts that remotely warrant you and your "penis" comment. You can't help but be a jerk, can you.
It would be unwise for China to expand its military like the old Soviet did. I don't see it's happening and don't expect it to go that route in the future either. Protecting its self interest within reasonable boundary is all China needs.
China will always flex their arm at any other military. But, at the same time, you can't really blame them for what they did. I mean, we WERE spying on them. If the roles were reversed, we would be pissed too. I doubt we would do anything like what they did, but we try to be more diplomatic.
Not like the old soviet. But China's military budge will grow with its economic power. It will eventaully have carrier groups etc and able to project its influence anywhere in the world. That is only reasonable expectation for world's 3rd largest economy (shortly to be number 2). I mean what even the British is able to do this.
China's not exactly a small fry in the military dept. Their Navy has pretty good tech and a decent size. Don't think they are scared to venture beyond their territorial waters or that they don't. I've seen this type of incident first hand and have been on the ship in the story. Its not like they crossed the line, but they do push close to it.
I do hope China can protect herself one day. They need to end the era where killers and spies spin out the whine first after they showed no respect to 1.3 billion people on this planet.
That 200 nautical mile zone doesn't prevent foreign ships from entering. It prevents them from fishing and mining but they can transit it without violating territory. Also the South China Sea EEZ's are in dispute since several countries overlap.
