« Hovering over air in Beijing | Main | The four 'new pests' »

The USS Kitty Hawk affair

Kittyhawk1 China’s mysterious initial refusal to let the USS Kitty Hawk and its five escort ships dock in Hong Kong for a four-day Thanksgiving layover is still the source of speculation.

China hasn’t explained why it denied the docking rights as the ships sailed toward Hong Kong , nor has it said why it reversed course once the ships had already veered toward their homeport in Japan. The sailors had to eat Thanksgiving dinner aboard their vessels. Read news stories here and here.

Both sides are left a bit raw over the incident.

Here are the two plausible explanations I’m hearing.

1) China is still angry over the October reception given to the Dalai Lama in Washington, in which President Bush received the Tibetan spiritual leader in the White House and Congress granted him its highest award.

2) The port call coincided with a large-scale naval and air operation by the People’s Liberation Army along coastal China, and would have put the U.S. ships in easy monitoring distance of the exercises.

Kittyhawk2 The Chinese military exercise has put a crimp on commercial aviation along much of eastern China’s seaboard, backing flights up. It is not unprecedented that military exercises would disrupt commercial aviation. Back on Dec. 1, 2006, the Shanghai Pudong International Airport was simply shut down for two hours with no explanation, forcing international flights to turn back or land elsewhere.

The incident is certainly a step backward after the announcement earlier this month that Beijing and Washington agreed to set up a telephone hotline between the two defense establishments to prevent any misunderstandings from flaring up.

Of course, there is a third possible explanation, and that is that some unknown incident by Washington was seen as provocative by Beijing, and this is the response. We may never know if that is the case.


TrackBack URL for this entry:

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The USS Kitty Hawk affair:

» China Air (And Naval) Travel: Everybody Knows The Trouble I've Seen, Part IV from China Law Blog
The always interesting Beijing Newspeak has a great post up on China's recent air traffic delays right on the heels of its new air traffic control regulations nearly doubling airspace for civilian aircraft. The post is entitled, "Your flight is delayed... [Read More]



The Only Reason there is no cola beverage drink present, is because there was a time for about 4 months there was nothing more than water readily available on ship. and even that had a ghostly flavor to it. Talk to the FSO why enlisted did not have carbinated drinks, all I know is I bought my MONSTER from Ships store, any sailor could survive on that!


Does this have anything to do with the pending premiere of the US Kitty Hawk in promenent display on the sixth season of uber-american Nashville Star, Monday on NBC?? correlation perhaps.


When i hear the words China, and military, and government, i cant help but think "spies" and "conquerer".

Of course the bush administration will always be the worst type of "conquerer" there will always be...wll until some chinese dude blow him away.

I say this because if you analysed the chinese carefully, you can imagine how unilateral, agressive and "as long as we profit "f" the rest" they are in their actions and foreign policy.
And again, theyre so scared that we could've caught a glimpse of their military exercise, but they are robbing other countries blind through their spying activities it's almost ridiculous. And they're building these war machines, spy equipment, and these anti satellite weapons, but oh, they're opposing putting weapons in space, and they are only looking for peace, with their military hidden agendas and all.

Why don't Disney create a wonderful sweet movie about how great the chinese reall are. (talking about the government here, not the people).


Did Halo Burnton get paid? come on People, think like Bush and Cheney on international matters. First and foremost your guiding principle must be: did Halo Burnton get paid. As a second question you may ask did big oil and the Saudis get paid.


...we are considering boycotting their Olympics in 2008 ... for sending us cheap crap that can kill or poison our pets and kids.

1)You go to a dollar store, and never wonder why everything is only for a dollar. You get cheap crap because thats what you want to pay for. You think its only limited to pet food, toys and seafood? For some reason all the Chinese suppliers of other products react differently when squeezed on production costs? The US government is only selectively targetting products, because they know that if they were to test for every Chinese import, they would be sure to find some unsatisfied safety standard in just about every case, and they are very much afraid what impact that kind of recognition would have on their economy and consumer confidence, given the shear range of Chinese made goods in the US.
Afraid of lead? don't stop with the toys, chuck out your mugs, your tv remote, your garden tools, your fishing kit, your keyboard, mouse, and other computer assesories, hell loose the desktop case while you're at it. Cus chances are if elmo can be laced with lead, any other made in china product
is likely too. And don't just stop with the MiCs; many Chinese manufacturers forgo that labeling right, so you'll get made in spain bags that are actually produced in some dirty factory in shenzhen.

2)Boycotting the Olymipics is an awesome idea! That way G.W. will turn up all alone in Beijing, without fans or a team to cheer for. That would be hilarious.


"We need nationalism back and need show others do not tread on US. We must stand up to any nation try to undermine our abilities and teach them we means business"
... because they won't let your machines of war anchorage to their ports. Here's an idea, in retailation for this 'treading on the US', next time a Cuban based Chinese submarine group asks to dock in New York, you send them back to Cuba, and make them eat their dumplings in their boats.


Let us deliver Pffefer, CJW and Joseph to Ben Laden.

DC Guy

Wait till the Chinese start flying recce missions out of Cuba up and down the east coast, just to give us a taste of our medicine.


Yeah, let's nuke China!!! And Russia!!!

America is forever No.1!!!!!!!11111



If a chinese navy fleet finishes a military exercise off San Diego coast with US army as targeting enemy and subsequently request a layover at LA port for Chinese new year celebration, what will US government do?

You just cannt stop bitching.


And maybe the US wanted to send its mini-flotilla into an area where China was conducting military exercises. Just because the US has a better reputation than China doesn't mean it has a good reputation...


We need to send a signal to them we are considering boycotting their Olympics in 2008 for this shoddy treatment, for their lack of properly valuing their currency, and for sending us cheap crap that can kill or poison our pets and kids.

Joseph George

We need nationalism back and need show others do not tread on US. We must stand up to any nation try to undermine our abilities and teach them we means business in open seas. long live US Navy.

Ted Smith

The Chinese are merely reminding Little bush who is REALLY in charge.

At least he didn't beg, like he did when the Chinese refused to return our bomber during the first year of his ongoing disaster of an administration.

Peter H.

Maybe China is one country that just doesn't cringe in fear when the big bad U.S.A. comes to their back door. The U.S. didn't like the U.S.S.R. going to Cuba either.



No, they want to tick off a whole bunch of American sailors and airman so they work extra hard in countering this unfriendly country.

How can you really consider China an unfriendly nation when you are allowed to go meet with friendly folks, gets drunk in bars, have fun, shop, and go to attractions like the HK Disney for fun?

Besides, the PLA and PLN have to do their part to help the DoD justify large new programs for state-of-the-art satellite, RPVs, and other spying activities to make up for what the Kitty Hawk (with its ancient and obsolete equipment) wasn't going to do much of anyways. How much spying can you do while most of your crew is busy ashore?

Come to think of it, PLA and PLN agents missed a golden opportunity to get to know the crew of a US navy carrier and recruit spies.... There must be a lot of John Walkers wanna bes out there that need to sell of secret stuff to finance their shopping in HK.

Maybe the Guangdong PLA and PLN are working for Japan? No? I wonder how much the Japanese paid them to do this?


If they don't want the carrier battle group to spy on their exercise, in port in South China Sea, why force the battle group out to East China Sea where the exercise will take place ? And do they think that the US need to have a battle group to listen in to what they do ? A small vessel with the right equipment can do that a lot better than a battle group.


Mr TJ!!!!

How dare you expose top secrets like how high the mess hall table is and the size of the meal trays in the Kitty Hawk mess hall?

You also exposed commercial secrets like Heinz being the preferred ketchup, the fact that none of the soldiers had a cola beverage visible.

On top of that, the reality of race relations in the US Navy: that whites sat on one table (one shown), and blacks are in their own table off to the side in the back of the mess hall.

Tut Tut... leaking state secrets.

I am calling Dick Cheney to have you recalled and tried before a military tribunal.


The hotline between Beijing and Washington is just that. Between Beijing and Washington.

There is no hotline between the Guangdong Military Region and Washington.

The comments to this entry are closed.




Send Tom a story suggestion.

Read Tom's stories at news.mcclatchy.com.

Follow Tom on Twitter: @TomLasseter

Follow Tom on Google Plus

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


    Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
              1 2
    3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    10 11 12 13 14 15 16
    17 18 19 20 21 22 23
    24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Photo Albums