Check it out:
An official Chinese newspaper on Monday accused the U.S. Navy of harassing a Chinese squadron earlier this month, shortly before a near collision that marked the two nations' most serious sea confrontation in years. ...
The Global Times newspaper said the USS Cowpens had been getting too close to a Chinese naval drill involving the country's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and its support ships.
The paper said the Cowpens came within 45 kilometers (30 miles) of the Chinese squadron, inside what it called its "inner defense layer."
"The USS Cowpens was tailing after and harassing the Liaoning formation," the newspaper said, citing an unnamed source it described as being familiar with the confrontation. "It took offensive actions at first toward the Liaoning formation on the day of the confrontation."
Yeah.
We used one of our 10,000-ton cruisers to challenge a relatively cheap Chinese LST in a game of chicken.
Oh, also, if we came within 30 miles of the Chinese task force, we were still over the horizon.
I really think we need a "reasonable person" standard for judging the validity of a harassment claim. Face it, China considers it unacceptable for our ships to be anywhere in the South China Sea, regardless of how far we were from their new carrier.
UPDATE: More. The article notes that the Chinese navy LST ordered our ship to stop; and recounts some recent Chinese harassment of our unarmed intelligence ships.
On the bright side, our use of a warship instead of an easily cornered intelligence ship is an improvement.
It would be a mistake to let China believe they can push us out of international waters, Chinese claims that we're sailing through the city of Sansha notwithstanding.
