Chinese navy ships spotted off Alaska as Obama visits Arctic

Five Chinese navy ships have sailed off the coast of Alaska in the Bering Sea, as Barack Obama made the first visit by a sitting US president to the Arctic.

The US confirmed that the vessels were sailing through international waters near Alaska, in the latest example of the growing reach of the Chinese navy.

“We are aware of the five People’s Liberation Army Navy ships in the Bering Sea,” said Commander Bill Urban, a Pentagon spokesman. “This is the first time we have observed PLAN ships in the Bering Sea.”

Taking place as Beijing staged a high-profile military parade on Thursday, and ahead of a visit to Washington by China’s President Xi Jinping later this month, the unprecedented demonstration of naval reach is a further reminder of China’s rising global assertiveness.

China on Thursday also exhibited for the first time an advanced “carrier killer” ship-targeting missile, the DF-21D, said to be under development since 2011. Experts say the US possesses no reliable defence against the fastest missile in China’s arsenal.

While three Chinese navy ships visited San Diego in 2014 on an official port call, the ships sailing near Alaska mark the closest the Chinese navy has come to the US mainland without an official invitation. The ships had just completed a joint exercise with the Russian navy which ended last week.

Analysts said the Bering Sea move was a provocative step for an increasingly adventurous Chinese navy.

Ian Storey, a security expert at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said the move was “an astonishing and unexpected development”.

“That this has happened during President Obama’s visit to Alaska can’t have been a coincidence, and is probably intended to send a message to the United States that China is intent on becoming a serious long-term player in the Arctic,” Mr Storey said.

There has been growing international interest in the Arctic in recent years. China has described itself as a “near Arctic state” and in a bid to further its polar agenda became an observer to the Arctic Council in 2013.

In the past half-decade China’s navy has started sailing far from Chinese waters, patrolling the shores of Africa and the Middle East as part of anti-piracy efforts and in rescue missions to Yemen and Libya.

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In 2013 the US said China’s military had started sailing ships within America’s exclusive economic zone — the area within 200 nautical miles of a country’s shores recognised by the UN as the sovereign territory of any coastal nation. While the Pentagon did not confirm the location at the time, many experts said the ships were operating near the US South Pacific island territory of Guam.

Last year Chinese warships sailed through the narrow strait that divides northern Japan and Russia.

The US itself has been accused of security manoeuvres close to Chinese territory. In May the US military publicised a surveillance flight over contested islands on which Beijing is building facilities in the South China Sea.