Pentagon makes official protest to China

[tekisui]

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon issued a formal protest to China on Wednesday over its 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 a Chinese military officer who is Beijing's defense attache in Washington was called to the Pentagon to accept the protest from a Pentagon Asia policy official. Morrell called it an "a formal protest, an official protest, complaint," for refusing port entry for two U.S. Navy minesweepers and, later, for the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying battle group.

Also, the Chinese foreign minister met with President Bush on Wednesday and blamed the incident on "a misunderstanding."

Morrell said that it is not yet clear whether the Chinese military officer will indeed heed the summons to come to the Pentagon. Morrell said the summons constituted the official protest, but he did not release the wording.

Navy officials have said they are most troubled by China's refusal to let the two Navy minesweepers enter Hong Kong harbor to escape an approaching storm and receive fuel. The minesweepers, the Patriot and the Guardian, were instead refueled at sea and returned safely to their home port in Japan.

In addition, the Chinese also refused to allow the Kitty Hawk, a U.S. aircraft carrier, to make a planned Thanksgiving port visit to Hong Kong.

more at link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071128/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_china;_ylt=ArS86eUOJBfcfFiDTO8fVMFvaA8F


All this after an undetected Chinese sub *accidentally* surfaced during US Naval maneuvers.

[jimshoes]

1. China farts in our general direction

like it or not.

Honestly, I don't know whether to laugh or be angry.:freak:

[madokie]

2. scared a little maybe