Ebru News | No Misunderstanding in China Port Call

No Misunderstanding in China Port Call

China's last-minute cancellation of a U.S. Navy visit to Hong Kong wasn't a misunderstanding, but rather a result of ties with Washington being "disturbed and harmed." This is according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing.

29
Nov
2007

(Ebru News/AP) China's last-minute cancellation of a U.S. Navy visit to Hong Kong wasn't a misunderstanding, but rather a result of ties with Washington being "disturbed and harmed." This is according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing. Spokesman Liu Jianchao did not directly say what had caused the cancellation, although he alluded to recent actions that angered Beijing, like the U.S. Congress honoring the Dalai Lama and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Liu denounced a report that said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told U.S. President George Bush that barring aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk from entering Hong Kong harbor last week was a misunderstanding.

"The report is not in line with the facts," Liu said at a regular news briefing.

Liu appeared to indicate that China had canceled the visit deliberately to register its displeasure over U.S. actions, as it has done occasionally with previous Hong Kong port calls.

Liu said "erroneous" actions of the U.S. had "disturbed and harmed" relations and pointed to the U.S. Congress awarding its highest civilian honor to the Dalai Lama last month.

China had later reversed its decision denying entry to the USS Kitty Hawk and its escort vessels, but only after the strike group had already left the area.

Beijing had earlier refused port entry for two U.S. Navy minesweepers seeking to refuel and find shelter from an approaching storm.

The U.S. Defense Department is protesting formally China's refusal to permit U.S. Navy ships to enter the port of Hong Kong on two occasions last week.

''We are expressing officially our displeasure with the incident,'' Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. He said the Chinese defense attache, a military officer, was summoned Wednesday to the Pentagon to accept the protest from a Pentagon Asia policy official. Morrell called it ''a formal protest, an official protest, complaint'' for China's refusal of port entry for two U.S. Navy minesweepers and, later, for the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying battle group.

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