US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson has been in Vietnamese waters off the port city of Da Nang since Monday, marking the first port call by a US carrier to the Southeast Asian nation since the Vietnam War.
Da Nang was a major US staging area during the war.
Also in the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carrier’s strike group are two escort ships, cruiser USS Lake Champlain and destroyer USS Wayne E Meyer.
Top leaders from the United States and Vietnam discussed the possibility of an aircraft-carrier visit last year as part of an effort to further defense relations, the US Third Fleet’s command and control said in a statement.
Hanoi and Washington have been careful not to link the symbolic visit, part of a scheduled deployment in the Indo-Pacific region, to Beijing’s adamant claims of sovereignty over islets and atolls in the South China Sea, but ironically it is disapproving Chinese media that have been tracking the slew of exchanges taking place throughout the carrier’s five-day visit.
Beijing’s displeasure was inevitable, but its official response has been that the trip is unlikely to stir up trouble in the South China Sea.
“The South China Sea may be a good place to flex muscles, but it is primarily comprehensive strength that shapes the geopolitics there.… The US is free to send warships to the South China Sea, like the ongoing visit by Carl Vinson, which will only waste money,” said an op-ed in the party mouthpiece People’s Daily on Wednesday.
Even as US-Vietnamese military cooperation is being lifted to a new level, it “won’t embolden Hanoi to act as a US outpost to confront Beijing,” said the article, as it has long been Hanoi’s strategic vision to “simultaneously develop ties with Beijing and Washington.”
China’s Foreign Ministry said no country wanted geopolitical turbulence and the region had gradually “sorted out its thoughts” in handling disputes after an international arbitration initiated by Manila ruled in favor of the Philippines, which Beijing shunned at the outset.
That said, China Daily acknowledged the concern that Hanoi may be tempted to use its amicable ties with Washington as leverage to drum up resistance to Beijing’s increasing sway in the South China Sea, now that the ideological camaraderie between the two communist regimes has become thinner than ever and now that Hanoi has been fighting a lone battle after Manila became reconciled with Beijing last year.
Still, the strain is more “at the psychological level” and will not have any effect if “Beijing ignores it,” said the op-ed, adding that Beijing has the capability of “militarizing the cays, reefs and shoals of the Nansha Islands overnight.”
The Nansha archipelago is more commonly known as the Spratly Islands, which are subject to conflicting claims by Hanoi and Beijing.
Carl Vinson’s crew will share with their Vietnamese counterparts technical expertise in water and electricity supply, response to disasters, and personnel training on aircraft and in several local venues before leaving Vietnam on Friday, according to VietNamNet Online.
Jay Foust exactly!!!
Weak China talking nonsense again. No one believes you. No one likes you. We allowed you to stand on your own two feet; but if you continue to run your mouth, we will kick your legs out from under you. Would you like to be a third world shit hole again?
Obviously, you don’t know much about the armament on a carrier or its support ships. Those missiles won’t make their mark.
I guess no one remembers cao bang? Nah, we all know you dirty Chinese tried to invade Vietnam after our conflict with them. We achieved our goal, in weakening the Soviet Union… ultimately causing their collapse. You dog-eaters, on the other hand; got your weak asses handed to you. So quit with the "oh thou were our brother" bullshit. China always has been and always will be a snake in the grass.
Vinita Lim, why are you in England? Afraid your smart ass mouth would land you in prison in China?
Ken Nguyen, do you want us to eliminate your population problem? Get real, puny china man. Your nation can only talk… and not convincingly.
Aircraft carriers should be used mainly to deliver goods and services just like they did during the tsunami….. And the title "strike group" should be changed something more friendly
Otherwise I think guys at the port are having fun taking selfies
Ken Nguyen the USA deserve a respect from you and your country China. Remember they lost 100 of thousands of men just to liberates the whole Asia continent from the hands of the Japs and here you are talking rubbish. The least you can do is to regard them okay.
"waste of money" – so says the most corrupt government in the world. Maybe the CCP should put more effort into cleaning up its massive corruption problems rather than tell other countries what to do.
Ken Nguyen pls.we want peace if you to die your parents your brother cousins and you want lost all you have now will go war i dont care if you win or you loss but for me ill pray you both sorry
Mon Mah, glad you publicly admitted the illegal actions of both sides. I see you fled to a democracy. LOL. You just cannot make this shit up. Darwin would be proud. You just proved his point.
It is so easy in these days of long range anti-shipping missiles (which most blue navy countries do possess) to sink AC carriers like ducks! So better do jaw-jaw than war-war talk.!
It seems that Vietnam does not value its own citizens’ death at the hands of the bastard yankee. During the war, each time the Vietcong killed the yankees, (as reported by the newspaper ‘cos no internet then) we friends felt very happy for the Vietnamese. With the MyLai Massacer and Agent Orange’s death, we were angry and sad. But now no more.
Only stupid blind idiots will seek to destroy each another as if he is still in the Jurassic era !
Richard Caroll
Do you want Guam to be destroyed in return?
Just do it and see what happens. Empty talks just to make one feels nice.
It would cost the US a little over $3 million to destroy China’s "artificial islands". Wanna dance?
The US has the ability to destroy China’s "artificial islands" any time it wants to.
Fake news. China is restrained and diplomatic and do not threaten anyone with bluster. However it is a fact that China can sink the carrier easily and so the visit of the carrier is a waste of money in that context .
***Viet Cong-US circle the wagon conspiracy***
At a ratio of 1 to 100 or better, in favour of "American GI’s ", if we include personnels from both the North and South Vietnam Military, as both are Vietnamese nonetheless, kid’s forced at gunpoint to be sacrificial offerings for GI M-16’s and submachine guns…
Untold numbers of civilians casualties which has to at least be ten times that of military casualties. Family broken; loving sisters, wives, mothers, raped or forced by econmic circumstances into the comfort women’s field to serve GI’s fighting in the war…
The levelling to the ground of their country by John McCain B-52’s 24/7 for a period of a decade maybe two…
These people sure as the heck is a forgetful bunch.
Anyway, these civet cat poopers first used the Soviet Union to keep us in arms length. Now that the Soviet Union is no more, they turn to those who murdered their Mom’s and Pops, who raped their wives and their sisters, ones who view them as livestocks to now keep us in arms length…
We helped them keep the HO Chi Ming trail open and runing smoothly throughout the war at a cost (I read) of tens of thousands of Chinese lives.
We were instrumental in turning the heroic macho macho John McCain’s into POW’s of the Vietnam because, discreetly, together with North Vietnamese gun operators, our gunners and SAM operators manned Hanoi’s and Haiphong’s AAA’s and SAM’s together as a unit.
The thanks we get for going through thick and thin with these poopers and, to help them achieve their dream and longing of national salvation….
No more. NEVER AGAIN. Let them rot in hell is what I have to say about all of this…