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Sea confrontation will not affect exchanges

By Cui Xiaohuo and Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-12 07:48

Despite the confrontation between a US spy ship and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea on Sunday, the US navy is welcome to join a celebratory parade next month in waters off Qingdao, a naval officer said Wednesday.

"The navy has no plans to withdraw the invitation to the US for the event," Rear-Admiral Zhang Deshun, deputy chief-of-staff of the People's Liberation Army's navy, told China Daily Wednesday. "The incident is not going to deter everything,"

More than 30 countries, including major powers such as the US and Russia, have been invited to join the parade themed "The Harmonious Ocean " on April 23 to mark 60 years of the Chinese navy.

US National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told the Congress on Tuesday that the incident, in which five Chinese ships "harassed" the US surveillance ship USNS Impeccable 120 km south of China's Hainan island, was the most serious episode between the two nations since 2001 when a US spy plane collided midair with a Chinese fighter jet in 2001 near the same area.

The Foreign Ministry on the same day strongly criticized the US claims as "confusing black with white".

The Ministry of Defense Wednesday also responded to the incident, with spokesman Huang Xueping saying: "We urge the United States to respect our legal interests and security concerns."

President Hu Jintao, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, yesterday asked the PLA to resolutely safeguard the country's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity by speeding up its modernization drive.

He was speaking for the first time to military deputies attending the annual session of the National People's Congress, the top legislative body, and there has been no report of the president mentioning the latest incident.

The Chinese military has shown considerable restraint compared to the response after the plane collision in 2001, said Professor Pan Zheng, a senior researcher in US strategy at China's National Defense University.

Then, a Chinese pilot was killed and the US aircraft was forced to land at a Hainan air base. The 24 American crew were released after Washington expressed regret.

"The Chinese navy still sees the latest incident as an isolated case (which they don't want to spill into other sectors)," he said.

Military sources told China Daily yesterday the USNS Impeccable, along with other surveillance vessels, has been collecting various kinds of data including sonar signals that help trace submarine activities in the Chinese exclusive economic zone.

Two US defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that the Impeccable was part of a calculated US surveillance operation in the South China Sea, AP reported.

The Russian media on Tuesday linked the presence of US navy ships in the South China Sea to China's naval base in Hainan, saying that "a Chinese nuclear submarine base is not far from the spot where the US ship was operating".

Reuters also cited analysts as saying Hainan is a sensitive area as it houses submarines carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Washington Observer weekly said yesterday that the Pentagon's active contacts with the media in this incident were unusual; and it seems the US military is trying to use the incident to press US President Barack Obama to take a tougher stance against Beijing.