High voltage across the Taiwan Strait. A Chinese warship came within walking distance of the collision, about 150 meters from the US destroyer US Chung-Hoon. To report the news is Global News explaining how the US Army vessel is engaged in a joint effort with Canada on freedom of navigation across the Taiwan Strait. According to the reconstruction of a reporter of the network Canadian, traveling on HMCS Montreal which participated in the mission from May 25 in the South China Sea, the Peking unit set course to cut off the bow of the US destroyer whose crew advised by radio to change course to avoid the collision. A move, this, defined by the commander of Montreal itself, Captain Paul Mountford, “unprofessional” and an incident “clearly instigated by the Chinese”, since “the fact that this had been announced on the radio before doing so – underlines Mountford -, clearly indicated that it was intentional.”
The Chinese Army ship, again according to the reconstruction, ordered the American one to change course and move away to avoid the collision. The commander also said that he had urged the destroyer to act promptly to avoid the accident. The Americans, for their part, instead responded by asking the Beijing boat to stay away, but in the end the Chung-Hoon had to change course and slow down to avoid a crash considered inevitable without the appropriate corrections. The US Seventh Fleet announced on Saturday that the destroyer Uss Chung-Hoon and the Royal Canadian Navy’s HMCS Montreal were “engaged in a routine transit of the Taiwan Strait on June 3 (local time) in waters where the freedoms apply navigation and overflight on the high seas in accordance with international law”. The passage “demonstrates – reads the joint note – the commitment of the United States and our allies and partners for a free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Cover photo: ANSA/EPA | USS Chung-Hoon
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