First ship visits Hong Kong since carrier snub

First ship visits Hong Kong since carrier snub
By Cassie Biggs - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 5:47:20 EST

HONG KONG — A Navy warship Monday made the first visit to Hong Kong by an American ship since November, when an aircraft carrier group and two minesweepers were separately turned away, dealing a blow to improving China-U.S. relations.

The command ship Blue Ridge and its 700 sailors would stay in Hong Kong for a couple of days, Capt. David Lausman told reporters onboard the ship.

The arrival of the ship comes two months after the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and its strike group, carrying about 8,000 sailors hoping to join their families in Hong Kong for a holiday break, were refused entry to the territory’s deep-water port. Hong Kong authorities said the ships did not have clearance from Beijing.

Earlier that month, two minesweepers running low on fuel and buffeted by winds in the South China Sea requested permission to wait out the storm in Hong Kong but were also turned away.

No official reason was given for the Kitty Hawk or minesweeper snubs by Beijing, according to Adm. Timothy Keating, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, although Chinese officials later suggested the move was a reaction to Washington’s decision to grant an award to Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and to sell weapons to its rival Taiwan.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_blueridge_080128/