China Denies Saying Incident Was `Misunderstanding'

By Allen T. Cheng and Ken Fireman

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- A senior Chinese official denied that his country's foreign minister called an incident involving a U.S. aircraft carrier a ``misunderstanding'' and said China was upset over President George W. Bush's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao also said the U.S. was ultimately responsible for the fact that the USS Kitty Hawk didn't make a port call in Hong Kong last week.

``We feel relations are overall good, but there's been some interference,'' Liu said today during a briefing in Beijing. ``Particularly, actions by U.S. leaders, such as the meeting with the Dalai Lama and the U.S. congressional medal award'' given to the exiled Tibetan leader.

The Kitty Hawk, accompanying ships and about 8,000 crew members were scheduled to spend the Thanksgiving holiday in Hong Kong. China unexpectedly denied the U.S. Navy permission to land, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

China later reversed its decision on ``humanitarian considerations,'' but the ships had already turned around, according to the Pentagon.

Liu said it was the U.S. that broke with protocol and decided not to dock in the city after permission was given for the battle group to land.

``We handle these dockings on a case-by-case basis,'' Liu said. ``We welcome U.S. naval ship visits to Hong Kong. But it was the U.S.'s decision not to dock.''

Meeting With Bush

Yesterday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi termed the incident a misunderstanding during a meeting with Bush.

Liu today denied that the foreign minister called the event a misunderstanding, though he refused to elaborate.

Perino today stuck with her explanation and said that, in light of the different Chinese statements, the U.S. would seek a clarification from Beijing. She also said the issue wouldn't have an impact on overall U.S.-Chinese relations.

``This is one small incident,'' Perino said. ``And in the big picture, in the big scheme of things, we have very good relations. We would just like to clarify this issue.''

The Pentagon yesterday lodged a formal protest over the Kitty Hawk affair and an earlier incident in which two U.S. minesweepers, the USS Patriot and USS Guardian, were denied permission to take refuge in Hong Kong from a storm and refuel.

The protest was delivered by David Sedney, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, during a 30-minute meeting at the Pentagon with a Chinese defense attaché, according to Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

Liu said today that China hasn't received a formal protest.

`Unfortunate Incident'

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman today declined to respond to Liu's assertion of U.S. responsibility for the Kitty Hawk's failure to dock in Hong Kong.

``This was an unfortunate incident, but we're going to move on,'' Whitman said.

U.S. defense officials say that the incidents, while perplexing, don't lead them to believe the Chinese are pulling back from greater engagement with American military personnel.

``What happened in the last week does make me scratch my head,'' the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said yesterday in a speech at the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

``And yet I do think we need to continue to be engaged with each other and work our way through these challenges and certainly not close the door because one thing happened or a couple of things happened,'' Mullen said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Allen T. Cheng in Beijing at acheng13@bloomberg.net ; Ken Fireman in Washington at kfireman1@bloomberg.net

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