A Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) destroyer came too close for comfort Sunday while confronting a U. S. Navy destroyer in a brazen show…
A Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) destroyer came too close for comfort Sunday while confronting a U. S. Navy destroyer in a brazen show of force in the South China Sea.
In a maneuver officials are calling “unsafe and unprofessional,” the Chinese ship, a Luyang-class guided missile destroyer, forced the USS Decatur to change course to avoid a collision, CNN reported .
The USS Decatur is one of many U. S. and allied ships that have been sailing the international waters of the South China Sea with increased frequency in order to challenge Beijing’s illegal claim to the shoaled waters of the “Nine Dash Line,” a sea-lane last controlled by the Chinese over a century ago. In recent months, tensions have risen sharply in the region as Chinese President Xi Jinping has escalated his regional land-grab to the status of military occupation.
What began in 2014 as an apparent bid to steal neighboring nations’ rich oil fields in the archipelagos between The Philippians and Vietnam, has nearly reached a breaking point.
