China sends spy ship to monitor US-led navy

China says it has the right to send a surveillance ship to monitor a United States-led naval exercise, after US media reported the vessel’s presence off Hawaii over the weekend, BBC reports.

Navy ships had the right under international law to operate in “waters outside of other countries’ territorial waters”, the defence ministry said.

China is also taking part in the drill. It has sent four ships with an estimated 1,000 sailors onboard to the Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) operation.

Twenty-two countries are taking part this year and it is the first time China has been included.

The US acknowledged that it was the first time that a participating country had also sent a vessel to monitor the exercise.

Captain Darryn James, chief spokesman of the US Pacific Fleet, told agencies that China had sent a similar ship to the last Rimpac exercise in 2012.

He added that the US had taken “all necessary precautions to protect our critical information”.

Some US-based media outlets have questioned the presence of the ship.

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