US-China ties strained by Kitty Hawk spat

China's two recent decisions to deny US navy ships access to Hong Kong port have raised fresh questions about the future of military relations between the two powers. Those ties had been improving steadily since their low point in 2001 when a US naval spyplane collided with a Chinese fighter jet.

China denied the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier permission to dock at Hong Kong last week for Thanksgiving, even though the sailors' families had flown there to celebrate the holiday. Beijing reversed the decision the following day but it was too late, because the Kitty Hawk was already sailing back to its home port in Japan.

A few days before Beijing had refused two minesweeping ships permission to take refuge from a storm at Hong Kong harbour, which Admiral Timothy Keating, the head of US Pacific Command, which oversees US operations in Asia, said this week was even more disturbing than the Kitty Hawk incident.