United States protests Chinese interference with U.S. naval vessel, vows continued operations.

• Author: Crook, John R.

In March 2009, Chinese vessels aggressively shadowed and harassed the USNS Impeccable, a U.S. Navy ocean surveillance vessel operating in the South China Sea, and instructed it to leave the area. The Chinese vessels closed to within a few feet of the U.S. ship, requiring it to maneuver and stop to avoid a collision. The U.S. vessel, which has no large-caliber weapons and is manned by a mixed crew of naval personnel and civilians, was operating about seventy-five miles south of China's Hainan Island. (1) It is one of five U.S. ocean surveillance ships that, according to a U.S. Military Sealift Command Web site, "directly support the Navy by using both passive and active low frequency sonar arrays to detect and track undersea threats." (2) According to a private U.S. military analyst:

[T]his vessel is used by the military to track submarines, and is the quietest vessel the government operates, outside of submarines themselves.... Surveillance ships serve as a stable platform to gather underwater acoustical data. IMPECCABLE was specifically designed to deploy two underwater listening devices called surveillance towed-array sensor system (SURTASS) used to augment the Navy's antisubmarine warfare capability. The SURTASS mission is to gather ocean acoustical data and, through electronic equipment onboard, process and provide rapid transmission of antisubmarine warfare information via satellite to shore stations for evaluation and analysis. (3) The United States protested China's action, insisting that the U.S. vessel was operating lawfully on the high seas and that it had the right to do so without prior notice or Chinese consent. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing delivered a formal protest, and China's defense attache was summoned to the Pentagon. (4) A U.S. guided missile destroyer was dispatched to the area to protect the surveillance vessel. (5) The incident reportedly was raised with China's foreign minister in the course of his White House meetings with President Obama and other senior U.S. officials in March 2009. (6)

The White House spokesman addressed the issue publicly.

Q ... Chinese vessels have been harassing U.S. ships with increasing aggressiveness. I know that the Chinese defense attache went to the Pentagon, or is at the Pentagon right now, to review a complaint, but is the President taking any other action regarding the Chinese government, to tell them to stop doing this?

MR. GIBBS: I know that our embassy in both Beijing and here...