This Is How Wars Start (ZT) - 看看《时代周刊》战地博客对中非撞船的报道

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This Is How Wars Start
Posted by Mark Thompson Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 12:37 pm
5 Comments • Related Topics: China, National Security, Navy , Philippines

The ex-U.S. Navy minesweeper that tangled with a Chinese vessel Tuesday / Wiki photo

You know it's never a good sign involving shipping on the contested high seas near China and the Philippines when the phrase "`accidental' collision" appears in the first sentence of a news story -- with the word accidental in quotes.

Reports Wednesday's Philippine Star newspaper:

MANILA, Philippines - An “accidental” collision with a Navy gunboat on patrol in the West Philippine Sea yesterday forced a large Chinese fishing vessel to beat a hasty retreat, leaving behind 25 smaller boats it was towing...

“As our patrolling ship was approaching to check on the encroaching Chinese vessels, it incurred a steering problem and accidentally hit the mother ship of the Chinese fishermen,” [a senior Philippine military officer] said. He said big waves affected the ship's steering, causing it to move uncontrollably toward the Chinese vessels.

Wait until the Chinese discover that the Philippine vessel involved -- one of the oldest warships still sailing -- was originally a U.S. Navy warship. The Savannah Machine and Foundry Co. in Savannah, Ga., built the 222-foot ship in the final days of World War II. The U.S. Navy commissioned it the same month the U.S. military dropped a pair of atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II.