US Coast Guard spots Chinese warships off American coast

The Coast Guard spotted four Chinese warships off the coast of Alaska in the Bering Sea, officials said Wednesday.

The vessels were in international waters but thin the US exclusive economic zone, an area that extends 200 nautical miles offshore in which America has rights over fishing, energy and other mineral resources.

Crew aboard US Coast Guard Cutter Kimball detected three vessels 124 miles north of the Amchitka Pass in the Aleutian Islands.

A short time later, a helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak spotted a fourth ship approximately 84 miles north of the Amukta Pass.

'The Chinese naval presence operated in accordance with international rules and norms,' said Rear Adm. Megan Dean, Seventeenth Coast Guard District commander. 

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FILE PHOTO: A Coast Guard Cutter Kimball crewmember observing a Chinese warship in the Bering Sea, September 19, 2022

'We met presence with presence to ensure there were no disruptions to US interests in the maritime environment around Alaska.'

Coast Guard Cutter Kimball is a 418-foot ship based in Honolulu.

This wasn't the first time Chinese naval ships have sailed near Alaska waters.

In September 2022, the Kimball spotted guided missile cruiser from China in the Bering Sea.

And in September 2021, Coast Guard cutters in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean encountered Chinese ships, about 50 miles off the Aleutian Islands.

The U.S. military routinely conducts what it calls freedom of navigation operations in disputed waters in Asia that China claims as its own, deploying Navy ships to sail through waterways such as the South China Sea.

The US says freedom of navigation in the waters is in America's national interest.