Port call confusion: U.S., Japan try to decode mixed signals

Beijing, meanwhile, went ahead with plans for a high-profile port call of its own, making the Chinese military’s first visit to Japan since World War II.

So, on Friday, a Chinese destroyer and the aging American aircraft carrier sat docked in the same bay, at separate ports, one quietly awaiting two months of repairs and the other basking in a flurry of welcoming ceremonies, honor bands and smiling assurances that — despite all appearances otherwise — China’s ever-growing military is “very transparent.”

Officially, Tokyo hailed the Chinese ship’s visit.

“This is truly a new page in Japan-China relations,” Adm. Eiji Yoshikawa, the chief of staff for Japan’s navy, said at a welcoming ceremony for the guided missile cruiser Shenzhen, which docked at a Tokyo pier on Wednesday. “We welcome this visit with all our hearts.”

But both Tokyo and Washington are deeply concerned by recent Chinese military activities, particularly the rapid improvements it is showing in missile technology, the modernization of its huge standing army and the reach of its navy.

Early this year, that concern came to a head when China blasted one of its own weather satellites out of low Earth orbit with a ground-based missile, the first such test ever by any nation, including the United States and Russia.

An even more fundamental concern of Tokyo and Washington is the double-digit growth in China’s annual military spending, coupled with Beijing’s reluctance to divulge military-related information, which made the Kitty Hawk incident all the more disconcerting.

Several days before the Kitty Hawk was turned back last Thursday, Beijing refused to let two U.S. Navy minesweepers enter Hong Kong harbor to escape an approaching storm and receive fuel. The minesweepers, the Patriot and the Guardian, were instead refueled at sea and returned safely to their home port in Japan.

The Kitty Hawk, which had been scheduled to return on Dec. 1, arrived at this base just south of Tokyo on Tuesday.

U.S. military officials protested Beijing’s seeming caprice. President George W. Bush mentioned it in a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the White House on Wednesday.

Yang called it a “misunderstanding,” but offered no apology.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao later said ties had been “disturbed and harmed” by “erroneous” U.S. actions.

Liu specifically mentioned the U.S. Congress’ awarding its highest civilian honor to the Dalai Lama last month as an issue that had upset relations. Though the Tibetan spiritual leader is lauded in much of the world as a figure of moral authority, Beijing demonizes the monk and claims he seeks to destroy China’s sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet.

Also hurting relations were arms sales to Taiwan, an island which China regards as a renegade province, he said.

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