Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 4:13PM
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By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Chief Pentagon Correspondent, and Courtney Kube, NBC News Producer
In a dangerous high-seas game of chicken, five Chinese boats harassed and came perilously close to colliding with a U.S. Naval surveillance ship off the coast of Hainan Island Sunday, after the Chinese military ordered the ship to leave the area or "suffer the consequences." The Navy dispatched a destroyer, the USS Chung-Hoon, to the vicinity as a precaution.
Pentagon and military officials tell NBC News the unarmed USNS Impeccable surveillance ship was "operating legally in international waters," towing an underwater sonar bouy, trolling for Chinese submarines when three Chinese military ships and two Chinese trawlers began to harass the American ship.
The five Chinese vessels first surrounded the Impeccable, and one Chinese ship passed dangerously close, within 25 feet, before the two trawlers pulled to a stop directly in front of the Impeccable which "came damned close to colliding" with the Chinese ships before making an emergency stop. The crew aboard one of the Chinese ships also used a grappling hook to try to snag the tow line that was dragging the sonar bouy through the water.
