UNPRECEDENTED PROVOCATION: Five Chinese Navy Ships Are Operating off the Alaska Coast While Obama Visits Nearby Kotzebue
By Jeremy Page and Gordon Lubold. Five Chinese navy ships are currently operating in the Bering Sea, off the coast of Alaska, the first time the U.S. military has seen such activity in the area, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
The officials said they have been aware in recent days that three Chinese combat ships, a replenishment vessel and an amphibious ship were in the vicinity after observing them moving toward the Aleutian Islands, which are split between U.S. and Russian control.
They said the Chinese ships were still in the area, but declined to specify when the vessels were first spotted or how far they were from the coast of Alaska, where President Barack Obama is winding up a three-day visit.
“This would be a first in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands,” one defense official said of the Chinese ships. “I don’t think we’d characterize anything they’re doing as threatening.” The Pentagon official confirmed that the five ships were operating in international waters.
Pentagon officials also said there was no information suggesting the Chinese ships had gone through the Bering Strait, a narrow waterway north of the sea that abuts Alaska. (Read more from “Five Chinese Navy Ships Are Operating in Bering Sea off Alaska Coast” HERE)
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Obama Heads to Arctic Community on Last Day of Alaska Tour
By Roberta Rampton and Steve Quinn. President Barack Obama on Wednesday will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit a community north of the Arctic Circle, a trek the White House hopes will bring into focus how climate change is affecting Americans.
After meeting tribal leaders and fishermen in Dillingham, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery, Obama will fly into Kotzebue, an Arctic town of about 3,000 that is battling coastal erosion caused by rising seas.
In Kotzebue, Williie Goodwin, 71, said he hoped Obama would see the effect climate change has had on migration patterns of animals. But he said he does not want the federal government to restrict mining and energy production because jobs in those sectors would keep the North going. (Read more from this story HERE)
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