The commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz said Chinese vessels and planes that he encountered during a seven-month deployment in the western Pacific were “very polite and very professional.”
Capt. Craig Sicola told reporters that he expected interactions to be more tense due to the current state of US-China relations. “I would say that probably some of the most professional interactions I’ve had in my 29 years [in the Navy] are with them,” he said, according to Defense One.
Sicola said the Chinese military “reached out, and their scripts are very professional, just like we’ve arranged.” The USS Nimitz is now on its way back home to the US, where it’s based in Bremerton, Washington.
The USS Nimitz and its strike group participated in several military exercises while in the western Pacific, including with the Japanese and South Korean militaries. The aircraft carrier also spent time in the sensitive South China Sea, where the US rejects most of China’s claims to the waters.
Sicola’s comments come after the US military accused China of “unsafe” and “unprofessional” maneuvers over two recent incidents, an encounter between US and Chinese planes over the South China Sea and one involving warships in the Taiwan Strait.
On June 3, US Indo-Pacific claimed a Chinese ship made an “unsafe maneuver” by passing within 150 yards in front of a US naval ship that was transiting the Taiwan Strait with a Canadian naval vessel. The Chinese military defended its actions, saying that US warships were in the region for the sake of provocation.
US military activity near China has increased in recent years, including the presence of aircraft carriers in the South China Sea. At the same time, US military leaders are openly discussing that they are preparing for a future war with China in the region.
Source: AntiWar.
