> The "Reasoning" with Chinese Characteristics -- China blames U.S. for
> denial of ship visit to Hong Kong/IHT
>
> China blames U.S. for denial of ship visit to Hong Kong
>
> By David Lague
>
> Thursday, November 29, 2007
>
> BEIJING: China blocked the visit of a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group
> and other American warships to Hong Kong last week in retaliation for
> the Bush administration's proposed upgrading of Taiwan's Patriot
> antimissile batteries, the state media reported Thursday.
>
> Beijing also denied that Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had told President
> George W. Bush in a meeting Wednesday that the canceled ship visits were
> a "misunderstanding," as the White House had reported after the talks.
>
> "Reports that Foreign Minister Yang said in the United States that it
> was a misunderstanding do not accord with the facts," a Foreign Ministry
> spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said in Beijing on Thursday, adding that China
> had "grave concern" about U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan.
>
> Liu also asserted that Bush's meeting with the Dalai Lama in October had
> damaged ties.
>
> The decision to cancel a Thanksgiving port visit to Hong Kong by the
> U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and its battle group has renewed
> tension in the sometimes troubled relationship between the U.S. military
> and its rapidly modernizing counterpart in China.
>
> Without giving a reason for denying the Kitty Hawk visit, Beijing then
> reversed its decision on "humanitarian grounds." It was too late; the
> battle group with its 8,000 sailors was returning to its base in
> Yokosuka in Japan.
>
> Days before the Kitty Hawk was turned away, China refused permission for
> two U.S. Navy minesweepers to shelter in Hong Kong's harbor during a
> storm and to take on supplies. The ships were refueled at sea, the U.S.
> Navy said.
>
> The Pentagon lodged a formal protest Wednesday with the Chinese
> government after senior U.S. naval commanders said they were
> particularly troubled by the unexplained decision to deny the
> minesweepers refuge.
>
> On Thursday, The Global Times, a tabloid published by the Communist
> Party newspaper The People's Daily, quoted an unidentified senior navy
> captain as saying that Taiwan had become an even more sensitive issue
> because of President Chen Shui-bian's campaign to win a seat for Taiwan
> at the United Nations.
>
> "But, the U.S. went ahead and sold Taiwan Patriot II missile systems and
> related equipment," the captain was quoted as saying. "This obviously
> sends Chen Shui-bian a wrong signal. That is why a lot of activity
> between China and America was stopped. Under normal circumstances, the
> U.S. Navy should have changed its port visiting plans."
>
> The captain also told The Global Times that Washington had behaved
> irrationally by trying to go ahead with the Hong Kong visit after it had
> announced the Patriot sale. "After the U.S. seriously harms China's
> interests, it still asks for an embrace from China," the officer said.
> "There is no reason in the world for us to do so."
>
> The dispute came to the fore even as the Pentagon has been striving to
> improve ties with the Chinese military, a relationship that reached a
> low in 2001 after a U.S. Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese attack
> jet collided in the air off the Chinese coast.
>
> On visits to China in recent months, senior U.S. officials, including
> Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and top military officers have called on
> China to reveal more about the reasons for its rapid increase in defense
> spending. They have also encouraged more exchanges of senior officers to
> improve communications and to build trust and understanding.
>
> The sides have agreed to work toward installing a hotline that could
> reduce the risk of conflict arising from accidents or miscalculations.
>
> Shortly after Gates visited Beijing this month, the Pentagon announced
> that it would sell Taiwan upgrades to its Patriot missile system for
> about $940 million.
>
> Security experts said Beijing was strongly opposed to the sale because
> it could help Taiwan counter the almost-1,000 short- and medium-range
> ballistic missiles the Chinese military has arrayed against it.
>
> "This is very sensitive to the Chinese side," said Andrei Chang, an
> expert in Hong Kong on the Chinese and Taiwan militaries and editor in
> chief of Kanwa Defense Review magazine. "They recognize that this kind
> of technology will change the military balance in the Taiwan Strait."
>
> A Pentagon spokesman, Geoff Morrell, said Wednesday that the Chinese
> military attach