(Bloomberg) — China refused a U.S. warship entry to Hong Kong next month, days after Washington sanctioned the Chinese military for buying Russian weapons. The U.S. consulate in Hong Kong confirmed on Wednesday that China had denied a request for the port call by the U.S. navy’s amphibious assault ship the USS Wasp. “The Chinese Government did not approve a request for a U.S. port visit to Hong Kong by the USS Wasp,” Darragh Paradiso, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, said in an email. “We have a long track record of successful port visits to Hong Kong, and we expect that will continue.”The vessel is part of a group based in Sasebo, Japan, and operating in the ­Indo-Pacific region. Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore specializing in China-U.S. relations, said last week’s sanctions were the “only reason” Beijing had denied the USS Wasp access to Hong Kong.

Source: National Post September 26, 2018 13:00 UTC