US destroyer spotted off coast of Shanghai as PLA Navy begins 11-week exercise in Yellow Sea
- America ‘playing with fire’ by allowing warship to sail close to Chinese territory at such a sensitive time, military expert says
- USS Rafael Peralta is second US destroyer sighted in Yellow Sea in less than a month
A US Navy destroyer was spotted sailing through the Yellow Sea off the coast of Shanghai on Friday morning, in a move one observer described as the United States “playing with fire”.
The USS Rafael Peralta, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, was seen 116 nautical miles off China’s east coast at about 8am, according to a picture released by the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, a think tank based at Peking University, which cited the vessel’s AIS (automatic identification system) signal.
The ship, which is the second US destroyer to be seen in the Yellow Sea in less than a month, entered the waterway from the East China Sea and had been in waters close to China since May 3, the image showed.
The US Pacific Fleet confirmed the ship’s movements in a Twitter post on Friday, saying the Rafael Peralta, which is capable of carrying out anti-aircraft and strike operations, had sailed in the East China Sea “this week”.
One of the images accompanying the post showed members of the crew standing in formation to create the number “115” to show how many days they had been deployed.