A US aircraft carrier, carrying 8,000 servicemen and women, was headed toward its home port in Japan on Thursday after a U-turn by China.
China had allowed the ship to dock in Hong Kong for the US Thanksgiving holiday. Nearly 300 spouses and children flew to the erstwhile British colony to meet the sailors for Thursday’s holiday, but China refused for 24 hours to allow USS Kitty Hawk to weigh anchor there.
When the decision was reversed afternoon, the aircraft carrier and its support vessels had already begun sailing back to its base in Japan after a frustrating 24 hours in limbo.
No reason was given by China for its initial refusal to allow Kitty Hawk into Hong Kong and the incident infuriated businesses who stood to make millions of US dollars from the four-day port call. The US military commander in the Pacific, Admiral Timothy Keating, was quoted by government-run radio station RTHK as saying he was “perplexed and concerned” at the snub.
China’s foreign affairs ministry declined to say anything about the refusal but it said that the decision to allow the aircraft carrier to dock in Hong Kong was on “humanitarian grounds”.
Restaurants and bars in Wan Chai nightclub district had put up bunting and posters to greet the servicemen and women on what should have been a bumper Thanksgiving for them.
