Chinese ship comes ‘within 45 yards’ of US destroyer in South China Sea

An American navy ship came dangerously close to a Chinese warship during a recent exercise, forcing the US destroyer to perform evasive manoeuvres to avoid a collision. The incident has been called an “unsafe” encounter between the two ships by Pentagon officials, and at one point the Chinese ship was reportedly around 45 yards from the American vessel. “A [Chinese] Luyang destroyer approached USS Decatur in an unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvre in the vicinity of Gaven Reef in the South China Sea,“ Captain Charles Brown, a spokesman for US Pacific Fleet, said in a statement.