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China Approves HK Visit by Two US Warships
China has approved the visits of two US warships to Hong Kong amid signs of a rapprochement between Beijing and Washington after relations were soured by a collision between an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet in April.
"They are the first approvals for navy vessels since the EP-3 incident," said a spokeswoman at the US consulate in Hong Kong.
The two minesweepers,the USS Guardian and USS Patriot, are part of the US Seventh Fleet. They normally operate out of Sasebo, Japan, and will be in Hong Kong between July 25 and 30.
China denied permission in May for the minesweeper USS Inchon to make a stop after the spy plane incident off the south China coast on April 1 strained bilateral relations.
But Washington and Beijing have since been mending ties.
The US EP-3 spy plane, landed on Hainan Island since the collision, has been flown home. And last Thursday, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and US President George W. Bush spoke for the first time by telephone.
The barring of USS Inchon was not the first time that US warships have been denied entry to Hong Kong after it returned to China in July 1997.
China barred visits by US navy ships to Hong Kong for three months after US warplanes bombed China's embassy in Belgrade in May 1999, killing three people. The visits resumed in September 1999.
Source: chinadaily.com.cn
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