US admiral takes stock of Sino-US tensions
As the 97,000t carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) steamed into Chinese-controlled Hong Kong on a port call on 21 November, RADM Karl Thomas talked about the 30 September episode when the destroyer USS Decatur was confronted by a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warship in the South China Sea.
Whilst conducting a freedom of navigation operation (FONOP), the Chinese Luyang-class destroyer approached USS Decatur in ‘an unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvre in the vicinity of Gaven [Reef]’, at one point approaching to within 45 yards. It performed ‘increasingly aggressive manoeuvres, and warned the Decatur to depart the area,’ according to the
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