WASHINGTON, Nov 14: A Chinese submarine came within a few kilometres of a US aircraft carrier in international waters near Okinawa last month without being detected, a Pentagon spokesman said on Monday.
Spokesman Bryan Whitman played down the security breach, saying he did not believe the Chinese Song-class submarine was considered a threat.
“I think you're generating more concern than perhaps is warranted,” he told reporters.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Monday she did not have information on the submarine incident.
“China has neither the intention nor the capability for a massive military build-up,” Jiang Yu told a regular news conference in Beijing. “We will stick to the path of peaceful development. China is an important force in safeguarding peace in Asia-Pacific and in the world.”
The Washington Times, which first reported the encounter, said the navy was reviewing its anti-submarine defences and that China analysts at the Pentagon were surprised that a Chinese submarine was operating so far from the mainland.
Mr Whitman said a US naval strike group, led by the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, was conducting routine training operations in the East China sea near Okinawa last month.
“During these operations a Chinese Navy Song-class submarine was sighted near the strike group by US Navy aircraft,” he said.
“My understanding is that this was several miles away,” he said.
The Kitty Hawk was not actively engaged in any anti-submarine warfare operations during the exercise, Mr Whitman said, explaining why it did not detect the Chinese submarine sooner.
CLOSER TIES: A US defence chief on Monday called for closer military ties with China and for the two powers to shed “Cold War” thinking on yesterday as he highlighted the naval encounter that could have gone wrong.
The chief of US forces in the Pacific, Admiral William J.Fallon, was asked to confirm the US newspaper report of an uncomfortably close encounter between US warships and a Chinese submarine in the Pacific last month.
Confirming the gist of the Washington Times report, Adm Fallon said the submarine had been detected at close quarters by an aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships.
“The characterisation of stalking an aircraft carrier is rather sensational and I think it's probably not close to being accurate,” Adm Fallon told reporters in Malaysia, where he is attending an annual meeting of Asia-Pacific defence chiefs.
But he added: “The fact that you have military units that would operate in close proximity to each other offers the potential for events that would not be what we would like to see -- the potential for miscalculation.”
“Now it turns out that the aircraft carrier and its escorting ships were out doing some exercises. I am told they were not engaged in anti-submarine exercises, so they were not looking for submarines. But if they had been, and this Chinese submarine happened to come in the middle of this, then this could well have escalated into something that was very unforeseen.”
Adm Fallon gave no other details of the incident. He has been leading a push for closer ties with the Chinese military.—AFP/Reuters
