Law of the Sea

Something very fishy (pun intended) must be going on in the seas around China and Hong Kong. The Foreign Ministry refused a Thanksgiving port call by the Kitty Hawk, a US aircraft carrier, to Hong Kong at the last minute, before it reversed the refusal "out of humanitarian concern", which decision, the US said, came too late. In the same month, the Chinese government also denied entry to Hong Kong of two American minesweepers seeking fuel and sheltered waters ahead of a storm, apparently breaching customary maritime practices. After Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi reportedly called the Kitty Hawk matter a "misunderstanding", an FM spokesman denied there was any misunderstanding and said China had expressed grave concerns to the US over the Kitty Hawk passing the Taiwan Strait. Without more transparency on China's side, it seems difficult to rebut the following remarks by Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of American forces in the Pacific, "It is not, in our view, conduct that is indicative of a country that understands its obligations of a responsible nation".