Parleying with the PLA

摘要

"YOU ARE on dangerous course," barked a Chinese sailor aboard the Lanzhou, a destroyer, over the ship's radio on September 30th. "If you don't change course you will suffer consequences." The vessel picked up speed and overtook the uss Decatur, an American destroyer, which was conducting a "freedom of navigation operation" (FONOP, in Pentagon jargon) near reefs in the South China Sea that are claimed by China, the Philippines and Vietnam. "We are conducting innocent passage," insisted the Decatur. She sounded five short blasts with her whistle as the Lanzhou closed in, passing within a hair-raising 41 metres. "They were trying to push us out of the way," notes an American sailor, narrating a video of the incident. Had the Lanzhou misjudged and smashed into the Decatur, lives might have been lost.