The USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group's visit to Hong Kong has nothing to do with the cross-strait situation, and is merely to allow the group's sailors to spend their Christmas vacation in the harbor city, a US navy commander said yesterday.
China's Xinhua News Agency yesterday reported that the USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group arrived in the port of Hong Kong yesterday.
PHOTO: AP
The group's plan to stay in Hong Kong for three or four days is simply to give sailors a chance to visit the city, as many of the US service members have never visited the former British colony.
Also, Hong Kong is one of the best harbors in the Pacific, Rear Admiral Doug Crowder, chief commander of the group, was quoted by the Chinese agencies as saying.
SECURITY CONCERNS
Asked which harbor is the group's next destination, Crowder declined to comment based on security concerns.
According to the aircraft carrier's spokesman, the USS Abraham Lincoln battle group, including the aircraft carrier itself, as well as three escort ships, will stay in Hong Kong for three to four days.
WEATHER
Local weather conditions will be the deciding factor for when the four vessels decide to leave.
The battle group has a total of 6,500 sailors and it was the first time for most of them to visit Hong Kong.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is US' fifth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.
The Abraham Lincoln's keel was laid on Nov. 3, 1984 in Newport News, Virginia. Four years later the ship was christened and began a series of performance trials leading up to commissioning in Norfolk, Virginia on Nov. 11, 1989.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS