US Navy Flag Ship Visits China

The flagship of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet arrived in the southern Chinese port of Zhanjiang on Monday for a three-day goodwill visit, aiming to warm the Sino-U.S. military ties.

Escorted by a PLA Navy missile destroyer 167 Shenzhen, the USS Blue Ridge docked at Zhanjiang in southern China’s Guangdong province. Captain J. Stephen Maynard, commander of the Blue Ridge, met and exchanged pleasantries with Senior Captain Wen Rulang from General Headquarters of the Chinese navy's South Sea Fleet.

Zhanjiang is a seaport and naval base located on the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong Province. The headquarters of the PLA Navy’s South Sea Fleet is also located here.

The USS Blue Ridge, which carries about 950 crew members, is the command ship of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, which operates from the centre of the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. This is the ship’s fifth visit to China.

According to the Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, this is a friendly visit and is not related to any political events happening in the region or world-wide. The port call enabled more than 1,000 sailors and Marines aboard the Blue Ridge, a command and control communications vessel within the U.S. Seventh Fleet, to enjoy a day of shopping, sightseeing and sporting competitions with the Chinese navy.

The USS Blue Ridge will sail out of Zhanjiang on Wednesday 30 March. The ship operates out of Yokosuka, Japan.

Date Last Updated: 29 March 05