US Navy releases video of 'unsafe interaction' with Chinese warship

The United States military released video Monday of what it called an "unsafe" Chinese manoeuvre in the Taiwan Strait on the weekend, in which a Chinese navy ship cut sharply across the path of an American destroyer, forcing the US vessel to slow to avoid a collision.

BANGKOK: The incident occurred on Saturday as the American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal were conducting a so-called "freedom of navigation transit of the strait between Taiwan and mainland China.

China claims the democratic self-governing island of Taiwan as part of its own territory, and maintains the strait is part of its exclusive economic zone, while the US and its allies regularly sail through and fly over the passage to emphasise their contention that the waters are international.

During the Saturday transit, the Chinese guided-missile destroyer overtook the ChungHoon on its port side, then veered across its bow at a distance of some 137metres, according to the US Indo-Pacific Command. The American destroyer held its course, but reduced speed to 10 knots "to avoid a collision," the military said.