On 10 May, the Southern Theater of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) issued a notice saying that the US Navy's guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey had illegally intruded into China's territorial waters in Xisha without the approval of the Chinese Government, and that the Southern Theater had organized naval and air forces to drive the US ship away in accordance with the law. According to a notice issued by the Eastern Theater of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the US Navy destroyer USS Halsey sailed through the Taiwan Strait on 8 May, which means that the US ship deliberately provoked at China's doorstep for three consecutive days, which was relatively rare in the past.
It is worth noting that while issuing a notice, the PLA Southern Theater also released a photo of the PLA warship driving away the US ship. In this photo, a PLA Navy soldier is using a telescope to observe the movements of the US warship not far away at a lookout post above the bridge, and no unusual behavior of the US ship was detected at that time. From this photo, we can also deduce that when the US destroyer "Halsey" approached the territorial waters of the Xisha Paracels on the mainland, it was closely monitored by the naval and air forces of the People's Liberation Army, and the PLA was bound to announce and radio warn the US ships not to approach the territorial waters of China's Xisha Islands.
However, the U.S. warship replied to the PLA that the destroyer "Halsey" enjoyed the right of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and had not invaded China's territorial waters, and that soon after, the U.S. warship illegally intruded within 12 nautical miles of China's Xisha territorial waters. Shortly after the announcement issued by the PLA's Southern Theater, the official website of the US Navy's Seventh Fleet also issued a statement about the incident, along with two photos of the US warship sailing off the coast of Xisha Sea.
The US military pointed out in the statement that the reason why the US destroyer "Halsey" approached the Xisha Islands was to challenge China's "excessive claims" in the South China Sea, and that the United States had never recognized China's territorial sea baseline claims in the Xisha Islands, so the US warships had the right to freedom of navigation in the coastal waters of the Xisha Islands and did not invade China's territorial waters. It can be seen from the statement of the US Navy's Seventh Fleet that the US military is brazenly provoking China's sovereignty in the South China Sea, which shows the degree of its arrogance.
However, compared with the on-site photos released by the PLA, the two on-site photos released by the US military only contain US warships, and this deliberate method of hiding PLA warships can only show that the US military does not want the outside world to know that the US warships were driven away by PLA warships and planes at that time, and the purpose is to cover up the truth.
However, in the notice published on the official website of the US military, the author found such a sentence: the US Navy destroyer "Halsey" left the waters of China's "excessive claim" and continued to carry out tasks in the South China Sea. In the US military's previous announcements on the South China Sea, there was almost no mention of "the US warship leaving", and this time the US military rarely pointed out that the US warship left China's Xisha territorial waters, most likely because the US warship was forcefully driven away by the PLA warships and planes at that time, rather than leaving on its own initiative.
In fact, when the US destroyer "Halsey" was approaching the Xisha Islands, the PLA's Southern Theater Navy's 055 destroyer Zunyi (port number 107), 052C destroyer Haikou (board number 171), 052D destroyer Kunming (board number 172), and 054A frigate Xianning (board number 500) were conducting actual combat training in a certain area of the South China Sea, and it was a 055 destroyer that drove away the US ship that day.
Although there are few details of the PLA warship given in the live picture released by the PLA Southern Theater of Operations, sharp-eyed netizens can still see at a glance that our naval fighters are observing the US ship's every move from the bridge of a 055 destroyer. The location marked in the following picture is the battle position of the PLA Navy soldier, and it is obvious that for the US warship to invade the territorial waters of the mainland's Xisha Islands, our 0.55 million tons drive directly on, and it is no wonder that the US military only dares to take photos of its own warship.
At present, the PLA Southern Theater Navy is equipped with four 055 missile destroyers, namely Dalian (port number 105), Yan'an (board number 106), Zunyi ship (board number 107), and Xianyang ship (board number 108). From the point of view of tonnage, the 055 destroyer has a full load displacement of 13,000 tons, which not only surpasses the American "Ticonderoga" class cruisers, but also surpasses the Russian "Glorious" class cruisers, which is the main reason why the US military defined 055 as a cruiser from the beginning, after all, it is too big. From the perspective of shipborne radar configuration, 055 is not only equipped with the world's leading large dual-band active phased array radar, but also equipped with an integrated mast, which is in the leading position in the world in terms of situational awareness and information integration capabilities.
In terms of weapon systems, the 055 destroyer is equipped with 112 large universal vertical launch systems, which can be compatible with the YJ-21 hypersonic missile, YJ-18 anti-ship missile, Haihongqi-9B anti-aircraft missile and Changjian-10 cruise missile, giving 055 a strong offensive and defensive capability. It should be pointed out that the YJ-18 is a combined anti-ship missile with a maximum range of 600 km, while the YJ-21 has a maximum range of more than 1,000 km, and has the strength of a tough US aircraft carrier.
The US destroyer "Halsey" belongs to the "Arleigh Burke" type II.A missile destroyer, with a full load displacement of about 9,000 tons, equipped with 96 Mk-41 vertical launch systems and four SPY-1D phased array radars, and has strong combat capability. However, in terms of the number of vertical hair, stealth performance, situational awareness and long-range anti-ship capabilities, there is a very obvious gap between the "Halsey" destroyer and the 055 destroyer, even netizens who do not understand military affairs can see at a glance that the two are not products of the same era in terms of appearance.
In view of the fact that the PLA 055 destroyer is superior to the "Halsey" destroyer in many aspects, especially in terms of momentum, the US warship will lose a lot, and the US military, which wants to save face, can only take a picture of its own warship, and does not dare to make public the "group photo" of the "Halsey" destroyer and the PLA 055 destroyer.
As a matter of fact, the US military also knows very well that the destroyer "Halsey" cannot be beaten or collided with in front of the PLA 055 destroyer, and it has no strength to confront it at all. Under such circumstances, if the US warship does not leave China's Xisha territorial waters quickly, then the PLA 055 destroyer may directly press over and squeeze the US ship out of China's territorial waters by ramming, which is very dangerous for the US warship. Therefore, seeing that the PLA dispatched the 10,000-ton 055 destroyer, the US warships could only quickly leave China's territorial waters in Xisha and did not dare to make the slightest stop.
Judging from the PLA's dispatch of the 055 destroyer to carry out the task of driving away the US ship, the PLA's countermeasures against the US military's provocative actions at China's doorstep have become tougher, which can also show that the PLA is becoming more and more confident and powerful.