October 6, 2018
South China Sea Showdown: What Happens If a U.S. Navy and Chinese Vessel Collide?
It might not end peacefully.
by James Holmes
What would happen should a U.S. Navy warship collide with a Chinese vessel while demonstrating on behalf of freedom of the sea?
This hasn’t been a trivial or hypothetical question since at least April 2001, when a Chinese fighter jet hotdogging near a U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance plane slammed into the American aircraft, kindling a diplomatic crisis between the Chinese Communist Party leadership and the newly installed administration of President George W. Bush. This aerial encounter furnished advance warning of what might happen on the surface below.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/south-china-sea-showdown-what-happens-if-us-navy-and-chinese-vessel-collide-32612
