(AFP) – Nov 28, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon lodged a protest with China Wednesday for stopping US warships from making port calls at Hong Kong last week, in the worst diplomatic row between the two major powers since 2001.

President George W. Bush raised the issue with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who said the USS Kitty Hawk was turned away from Hong Kong "because of a misunderstanding," a White House spokesman said.

"I don't know that that is a satisfactory explanation," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

He said a senior Pentagon official called in the Chinese military attache in Washington "to issue a formal protest, more of an official protest, a complaint about the incident."

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense David Sedney met for 30 minutes with Chinese Major General Zhao Ning at the Pentagon, conveying "deep regret and concern" over the Chinese actions, Morrell said.

He said Sedney told the general they "run counter to our joint interest in positively developing our military-to-military relations."

"The general said nothing substantive in response, but promised to relay the message back to Beijing," the Pentagon spokesman said in a statement emailed to reporters.

The flare-up -- which caught senior US 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.

Analysts said the Pentagon's reaction to the Chinese rebuff has been unusually pointed.

"I have never seen the Pentagon get so angry at the Chinese in my 30 years of dealing with the China issue," said John Takcik, a former State Department official now at the Heritage Foundation think tank.

The first sign of trouble came November 20 when China refused to allow two US minesweepers -- the USS Patriot and the USS Guardian -- to enter Hong Kong for refuge from a tropical storm and to refuel. They refueled at sea and made it back to their home port in Sasebo, Japan without incident.

China then denied the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its support ships permission to make a port call scheduled at least a month in advance to Hong Kong on November 21-24.

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 home port in Japan.

Morrell said an explanation was "due to the families of those sailors who at great personal costs had made arrangements to visit their loved ones in Hong Kong expecting the Kitty Hawk to port there as planned."

The chief of the US Navy and the head of the US Pacific Command on Tuesday said they were especially bothered that the two minesweepers were denied a safe harbor.

"It is not, in our view, conduct that is indicative of a country who understands its obligations as a responsible nation," Admiral Tim Keating, the Pacific commander told reporters in a video conference.

Morrell said the Chinese actions were baffling because US naval vessels routinely visit Hong Kong, one of the world's major liberty ports.

"There does not seem to be a reason that is obvious or apparent to any of us," Morrell said. "It's regrettable. And we have not received to date sufficient explanation as to why it took place."

Beijing has only closed the port to US warships in times of crisis in US-Chinese relations, such as the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and after a US P-3 surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter in 2001, he said.

The P-3's crew was held by the Chinese military in a bitter standoff, causing damage to military relations that has taken years to heal.

Relations have been strained lately by US suspicions of a Chinese military buildup and Beijing's anger over US arms sales to Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province.

The Pentagon may have touched a nerve recently when it notified Congress of the possible sale of upgraded Patriot missile defense systems to Taiwan, or China may have been reacting to Bush's recent visit with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader.

But Morrell said he was "aware of no hiccups at all in our efforts to increase military-to-military cooperation, exchanges with the Chinese."

"There is no indication at all prior to the Kitty Hawk being refused entry to the Port of Hong Kong that there was any reason or any cause for concern."

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