Chinese Navy Vessels Spotted Near Alaska by U.S. Coast Guard

The U.S. Coast Guard reported that a cutter on a routine patrol in the Bering Sea encountered several Chinese military vessels in international waters, but within the U.S. exclusive economic zone.

The crew detected three vessels about 124 miles north of the Amchitka Pass in the Aleutian Islands, the Coast Guard stated on Wednesday. Shortly after, a Coast Guard helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak spotted a fourth ship around 84 miles north of the Amukta Pass.

All four ships from the People’s Republic of China were “transiting in international waters but still inside the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone,” which extends 200 nautical miles from the U.S. coastline, the statement mentioned.

“The Chinese naval presence operated in accordance with international rules and norms,” said Rear Adm. Megan Dean, Seventeenth Coast Guard District commander. “We met presence with presence to ensure there were no disruptions to U.S. interests in the maritime environment around Alaska.”

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball, a 418-foot ship based in Honolulu, was involved in the patrol.

The Coast Guard did not immediately respond to requests for additional information from The Associated Press on Thursday.

The sighting occurred a week after the Chinese navy started its annual joint patrol with the Russian navy in the Pacific Ocean, as reported by the U.S. Naval Institute on July 5. The report stated that the patrol is smaller compared to previous years, including last August when over 10 ships from China and Russia formed a flotilla off Alaska.

, the Kimball spotted several ships from China and Russia 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.

“Our military needs to be ready for increasing Chinese, and joint Chinese and Russian military activity near Alaska’s coast,” U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican, said in a statement after being informed about the Chinese presence.

“I also met yesterday morning with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and specifically raised this issue—how America must be much more prepared for the increasing activity in the Arctic, and to also let Alaskans know that our military is on the job protecting our state and our country,” Sullivan said.

The U.S. military regularly conducts operations called freedom of navigation in disputed waters in Asia that China claims as its own, sending Navy ships to sail through waterways such as the South China Sea. The U.S. states that freedom of navigation in these waters is crucial for .