Three Chinese navy ships with nearly 700 sailors aboard pulled into Pearl Harbor on Friday morning for a port visit and search-and-rescue drill as the United States and China step up military-to-military contacts and exercises.
The four-day stopover by the destroyer Qingdao, frigate Linyi and oiler Hongzehu — the first People’s Liberation Army navy ship visit to Pearl Harbor in seven years — comes as China seeks a "new type of great-power relationship" with the U.S. and as China expands its influence through the South China Sea.
The ships also will make stops in Australia and New Zealand.
After greeting U.S. Navy officials, Rear Adm. Wei Gang, chief of staff for China’s North Sea Fleet, spoke pierside, telling those assembled that both countries’ leaders agreed to a new relationship based on "mutual respect" and cooperation benefiting both nations.
"There is broad space for cooperation between Chinese and American people and armed forces," Wei said through an interpreter.
Rear Adm. Rick Williams, commander of Navy Region Hawaii, referenced collaboration and cooperation as ways of reinforcing openness and trust.
"Through greater understanding we can ensure a peaceful and stable future not only for Hawaii and the Pacific, but also for our world," Williams said.
China is seeking greater stability in its relationship with the United States to avoid or, if necessary, manage tension that history suggests is inevitable between established and rising powers, a June analysis by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said.
The commission, created by Congress, added, "Beijing sees the United States as an essential economic and strategic partner, but also as the power most able to hinder the achievement of its objectives."
More than 100 Chinese from the local community enthusiastically greeted the ships with banners, small American and Chinese flags, and shouts of "Welcome!" in unison in Chinese.
"I was told this is a big deal because the past few years the relationship between the U.S. and China is kind of tense, so this is kind of an icebreaker," said Kenneth Lee, a Honolulu resident with the Hawai‘i Mainland Chinese Overseas Association who was on the pier.
Hula and lion dancers performed for military and civilian dignitaries from both countries, including Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, and Adm. Cecil Haney, head of U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Wang Xiaodong, a 29-year-old China Daily newspaper reporter attending the University of Hawaii as part of a nine-month journalism training program, said the ship visit is a sign of improved relations.
"Actually, I’m quite proud and excited (about the visit)," Wang said. "I think our country, China, is becoming stronger and it’s becoming more open to the outside world. So I’m quite proud as a Chinese."
The destroyer Qingdao was gleaming and appeared to have been recently repainted.
A long banner hung on the side of the ship read, "Enhancing the Friendship between China and the U.S. Safeguarding the Peace of the Whole World."
All three ships will participate in a one-day search-and-rescue and maneuvering drill Monday with the cruiser USS Lake Erie just off Diamond Head and Waikiki, Williams said.
The Chinese sailors will play basketball and soccer with U.S. Navy counterparts, visit the USS Arizona Memorial and Battleship Missouri Memorial, and spend time downtown.
Wei, the Chinese rear admiral, also is expected to meet with Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington that the Chinese military wants to move to a "consistency of dialogue."
"They want to move on and get away from miscalculation," Greenert said. "He (China navy commander Adm. Wu Shengli) has a challenge of a growing navy and an assignment and an intent by their nation to operate in the South China Sea and that area. Well, they know that we are going to be there, too."
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2000 prohibits combat training with China but allows search-and-rescue, humanitarian assistance, anti-piracy and other cooperation.
Greenert said planning for such joint exercises is too slow, and he wants to develop modules of training to boost interaction. He said he also wants to explore joint hospital ship missions with China.
