Meanwhile in Japan, a Chinese warship dropped anchor off Tokyo for an unprecedented visit to its historical rival, in a highly symbolic display of improving ties. The port call by the guided missile destroyer Shenzhen was part of a mutual exchange that will bring a Japanese warship on a similar visit to China next year.

During its four-day stay, Shenzhen was open to the Japanese public. It docked at the naval headquarters in Yokosuka, homeport of the USS Kitty Hawk. In Washington, a senior Pentagon official called in the Chinese military attache “to issue a formal protest, more of an official protest, a complaint about the incident.” The flare-up, which caught senior U.S. military officials by surprise, came just three weeks after Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Beijing to press for greater military contacts to avoid misunderstanding and miscalculations.

The first sign of trouble came Nov. 20 when China refused to allow two U.S. minesweepers — the USS Patriot and the USS Guardian — to enter Hong Kong for refuge from a tropical storm and to refuel. China then denied the Kitty Hawk and its support ships permission to make a port call to Hong Kong on Nov. 21-24 scheduled at least a month in advance. Hundreds of family members had flown to Hong Kong to meet sailors aboard the ship for the Thanksgiving holiday. Although Chinese authorities later gave the Kitty Hawk permission to go ahead with the port call, it had already reversed course and was returning to its homeport in Japan. The 46-year-old Kitty Hawk is the only U.S. aircraft carrier permanently deployed abroad. The diesel-powered ship will be decommissioned next year and replaced by the nuclear-powered USS George Washington.

Beijing has only closed the port to U.S. warships in times of crisis in U.S.-Chinese relations, such as after the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and a U.S. P-3 surveillance plane collided with a Chinese jet fighter over the South China sea in 2001, destroying the jet and its pilot. The reason for the latest rejection was an unannounced large-scale PLA drill, involving everything from aircraft to submarines, along the southeastern coast between Nov. 17 and 25, simulating a crisis over Taiwan. The presence of U.S. warships there would certainly spoil the game. The U.S. has been trying to forge military cooperation with China for more than a decade, but progress has been shaky. Congress’ recent honoring of the Dalai Lama and approval of arms sales to Taiwan has again disrupted relations. China was so incensed it canceled eight planned military exchanges in a month’s time.

The diplomatic friction is exactly the kind of incident that a crisis hotline proposed by President Bush to his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao three months ago might have averted. But Beijing obviously doesn’t trust Washington that much yet.

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