The Kitty-Hawk Chinese Sub Incident is Back: Suck a Hundred Year Egg, China!

PREDICTION: Chinese comeuppance before, during or after Olympics? China has humiliated the United States by suddenly barring a prescheduled, Thanksgiving visit to Hong Kong. What will the U.S. do? Will back-channel diplomacy or Olympic unsportsmanlike conduct exact retribution? No, the U.S. is too statesman-like to pull China's clumsy tactics. Options are numerous, but continued devaluation of the dollar against the yuan is the natural. Ouch, China! You were warned years ago to float your currency like other nations. The entire world remembers that you resisted. Your U.S investments are now worth how much less? Go suck a hundred year egg, China!

FLASHBACK: October 19, 2007 - China warns against 'political' Olympics - "We believe that any political issue that has nothing to do with the Olympics should not be linked to the Beijing Games," Liu Jingmin, executive vice president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games, told a news conference on the sidelines of a Communist Party Congress. ... In case anyone should try to organise protests at the Games or otherwise try to disrupt them, Liu warned that security forces would be on high alert.

UPDATE: November 24 2007 - Refusal baffles US admiral - A top US military commander is "perplexed and concerned" about the mainland's last-minute refusal to allow a US aircraft carrier to enter Hong Kong for a previously scheduled port visit. Admiral Timothy Keating said he was unaware of any reason for China's decision to turn away the Kitty Hawk. Asked if the incident would hurt military ties, Keating said: "We'll keep working on it of course, but it is difficult for me to characterize this in a positive light."

UPDATE: November 23 2007 - Families adapt after China denies USS Kitty Hawk’s request to visit - In some cases, those families and friends found themselves paying for hotel rooms at higher rates because the cheaper, block-rates for the sailors had been canceled. Some people who arrived late in Hong Kong on Wednesday night may have been charged a higher hotel rate than the one offered through MWR, Lt. Bill Clinton, the carrier’s spokesman, wrote in an e-mail Friday night. All of the hotels should have honored the MWR rate for subsequent nights, he wrote.

UPDATE: November 22 2007 12:08 - China reverses decision to bar US carrier - The Chinese government on Thursday reversed its decision to bar a US carrier group from visiting Hong Kong, but the about-face came too late to save the Thanksgiving holiday for 8,000 American sailors, airmen and their families.”The ships will not be coming back,” a spokesman for the US consulate in Hong Kong said. ”They are 300 miles out to sea and there is a storm in the area.” ... [T]he carrier group was steaming for its home port in Yokosuka, Japan.


UPDATE: Nov 21, 2007 10:22pm EST - U.S. aircraft carrier denied access to Hong Kong - HONG KONG (Reuters) - China has refused permission for a U.S. aircraft carrier and accompanying vessels to visit Hong Kong for a long-planned Thanksgiving holiday visit, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday. ...Hundred of relatives of crew members of the USS Kitty Hawk had flown to Hong Kong to celebrate Thanksgiving with their loved ones. ...Last year, a Chinese submarine surfaced uncomfortably close to the Kitty Hawk near the Japanese island of Okinawa, an incident that highlighted the potential for friction between the two powers. Here is the full article and much more.


The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced - 10th November 2007 - By MATTHEW HICKLEY



"American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board." [color emphasis added]



Recent exercise? A Year ago? Where does this journalist get his news, library archives? Continue reading for the new wrinkle.



To be fair, the author managed to select a good quote and very excellent photos of the Kitty Hawk and Chinese Song class submarines. I particularly like the detail of the carrier (see the larger photo in his story). As far as news, however, there was none. To see current Chinese subs with very nice soundtrack, try this YouTube:






Can anyone ID the great soundtrack, or the submarine class shown at 35 seconds?

Here is what I had said a year ago (even before two experts backed me up):
Telling journalists that the Chinese had been detected would be telling too much, that is, that they had been expected and were being electronically monitored for future reference. But, perhaps China's sub had been helped into the provocative act of surfacing amidst a U.S. task force. Neither China nor the U.S. would be anxious to admit that, would they?

Now, the new wrinkle:
As it turns out, the possible provocative act could even have been initiated by a third party, such as (some of these are intentionally unrealistic so there would be no finger pointing) VMF, MARCOM, RN, RAN, ROKN, JMSDF, PMW, or others.

Submarines are always silent and strange.