Accusations are flying between the US
and China
after a dangerous near
collision between warships
from both sides.
The incident happened
during a joint naval exercise
between the US
and Canadian,
the Canadian Navy in the Taiwan Strait.
Video showing
the near
collision was captured by a news
crew on a nearby ship.
You can see the Chinese destroyer
cutting across the front of the US ship.
CNN Pentagon correspondent found it.
Oren Liebermann is with us.
Oren, both sides are blaming each other
for this incident.
So what do we know right now?
And Paula, that's
so common when we see encounters
between the Chinese and the US military.
Two entirely different narratives
of what happened from the US perspective.
It was a US
Navy ship, a destroyer,
the USS Chung,
who sailing with a Canadian ship
through the Taiwan Strait,
which under international
law is international,
is an international waterway
sailing through that when,
according to us, Indo-Pacific command,
a Chinese Navy vessel
or a Chinese military vessel
cut 150 yards
in front of the US ship
and then circled back
and cut
2000 yards in front of that ship again
from the US perspective.
It is China here
that is to blame for what they called
an unsafe maneuver
Does great
risk to safety, the safety of mariners.
We don't seek a confrontation with China,
but those
those mariners out
there were clearly acting in
an unsafe way.
We were operating
in the international laws of the sea,
the rules of the road, so to speak,
which is again internationally accepted
And the Chinese were acting unsafe
From China's
perspective, it's
almost as if they're describing
an entirely different encounter.
China's defense minister
speaking at the Shangri-La
Dialog in Singapore just hours
after this happened,
said the US wasn't there
for peaceful purposes.
They were looking there for a provocation
by sailing through the Taiwan Strait.
And that gets to a disagreement
about simply the rules of the road,
as the U.S.
says, and what's allowed there.
The U.S.
and others view
that as international waterways.
We saw the same sort of disagreement
just a couple of weeks ago
over the south China
Sea when a Chinese fighter
jet intercepted
a US reconnaissance aircraft there.
Once again, U.S.
said it was an international airspace
and had the right to be there
under international law.
China,
however, said
it was essentially encroaching
upon Chinese sovereignty.
So there you see the disagreements
and how they can quickly lead
the tensions Paula.
Or in Europe, currently in Normandy
for the 79th anniversary of D-Day
with General Mark Milley.
So what message did he have
Well, General Mark Milley gave a speech
just a short time ago
at once known as the Iron Mike Memorial
from the D-Day
invasion, the landings here
that led to the liberation
of Europe in World War two.
This is personally and professionally
and personally important to him
personally, because his uncle landed here
and his father fought in the Pacific,
but professionally,
because especially D-Day highlights
the importance of of unity
and working together.
In that case,
it was the US working with
England and others.
It is a message
that has as much relevance
especially the Pentagon today.
And you see that
especially with China, as the U.S.
works with South Korea, Japan, Australia.
And you even see when it comes
to Ukraine, the U.S.
working with natal nations
so that message of unity, bridging
the nearly eight decades
between what we here to commemorate
and looking at the present day situation
so much.
Oren Liebermann, thank you
And let's get more on this incident
in the Taiwan Strait.
Cedric Leighton is a retired U.S.
Air Force
colonel and a CNN military analyst.
When you look at that video,
what is your assessment?
So, Paula,
the first thing that I see,
of course,
is a very closed maneuver by the Chinese
missile destroyer coming
across the front of the USS John Howard.
And that is a very dangerous thing to do.
I mean, we're talking
a very short distance.
Something could go terribly wrong.
And it really does show
a degree of unprofessionalism
on the part of the Chinese.
They are really risking a lot here
by doing this.
We're talking about,
you know, the collision of $1,000,000
objects here, a very, very
happening very quickly.
So it
is as dangerous as it looks.
Absolutely.
It's incredibly dangerous.
And one of the key things
that you have to keep in mind,
if you're really right there
at the about the ship
and you see something like this
happen, it's a lot closer
than it appears in this video.
And the maneuvers that the U.S.
captain, Naval
captain had to do
in order to avoid collision
were pretty considerable.
He had to reduce speed drastically.
He had to make sure that his ship
wasn't going to come across
the Chinese ship.
And that that is
you know, it's
something
that they have to be prepared for.
And clearly,
our sailors
are exceptionally professional,
but it is something
that really requires
them to be highly vigilant.
And it also requires them to,
you know, be able
to conduct evasive maneuvers.
And this isn't the only recent incident,
of course.
A Chinese fighter jet intercepted a U.S.
spy plane in international airspace
just last week.
So what is the strategy here for China?
So the basic strategy
always seems to be
that they want to harass as many U.S.
ships and planes as possible.
Both the ship
and the plane were conducting
maneuvers in international airspace
and on international waterways.
And that is, you know, key for us.
We want to keep the
all the sea
lanes of communication open
we want to keep the airways open.
And the reason we are
there is, in the case of the RC, one 35
spy plane,
we want to make sure that we can monitor
what the Chinese are doing
in the case of the destroyer.
We want to make sure that we can transit
these areas like the Taiwan Strait,
which covers a large portion of trade.
Basically, we're talking
60% of all your ships
go through here
during any given point in time
that 60% of
all container ships in the world.
So we want to maintain
the trade routes that exist.
We also want to make sure
that international law is followed
in these areas.
And by transiting these areas,
we are sure that that can happen.
And if the Chinese interfere in that,
they're indicating that they don't want
that kind of international trade
to continue
and that that is a dangerous thing,
not only militarily,
but also economically.
Well, China
reportedly declined an offer
for Defense Secretary Austin
to meet his Chinese counterpart
at a conference in Singapore this week.
Without that kind of dialog,
is de-escalation even possible right now?
It's really difficult
especially given the top down
nature of the Chinese system.
If the minister of defense doesn't
meet with the secretary of defense
on the U.S.
side,
then chances are that people
at the intermediate levels of command
aren't going to be meeting either.
And that is a real problem, because
if you can't have that dialog,
if you can't de-conflict operations,
that becomes a major issue.
And that could result in miscalculation.
And as such, it's really dangerous
Colonel Cedric Leighton,
thank you so much. You bet, Paula.