On Monday, China decided the USNS Impeccable was inappropriately "surveying" their people and China set about to set in place a blockade -- an incarceration at sea -- to prevent the United States from their alleged unlawful action.
According to the Pentagon, five Chinese vessels surrounded the ship and closed to within 50 feet while crew members were "waving Chinese flags and telling Impeccable to leave the area."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said at a news conference Tuesday that the United States had misrepresented the situation and that the U.S. ship had been in a "Chinese exclusive economic zone" without the Chinese government's permission.
"The U.S. claim is totally inaccurate and confuses right and wrong and is unacceptable to China," Ma said. China maintains that the Impeccable's presence violates international law and has demanded that the United States refrain from carrying out similar missions.
I don't understand why China and the USA are playing these games of chicken on the high China seas -- we're both indebted to each other up to our eyelashes.
If either country fails or falls, the other will come tumbling down ahead of the other.
It's a madman's game of meaningless one-upmanship.
The pettiness of the situation seems just amazing to me. It's almost myopic, their behavior.
It makes no sense, Gordon, unless you want an international MMA-style fight just to see who's the toughest and then when it's over you shake hands and make up, but that's such a huge waste of time and money.
These are bored people with nothing better to do than just make trouble.
I just hope they don't blow up the whole world in this testosterone show.
It is a strange standoff, Anne, and I do hope this sort of posturing doesn't lead to bending down to pick up a gun or load a cannon.