Did a US warship lose power while chasing a Chinese destroyer in the South China Sea?
Por Liu Zhen — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement South China Sea China Military Did a US warship lose power while chasing a Chinese destroyer in the South China Sea?
PLA Navy officer tells state media the unnamed foreign ship’s ‘radar stopped transmitting and its navigation lights went dark’
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Liu Zhen Published: 9:00pm, 8 Oct 2026 The Chinese navy says it had a rare South China Sea encounter involving a foreign warship that lost power, propulsion and radar while following a People’s Liberation Army destroyer, an account that resembles incidents this year involving US Navy destroyers in the region. The incident occurred when a foreign vessel conducted aggressive close shadowing of the PLA Navy Type 055 destroyer Zunyi during routine training by the Chinese vessel, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Wednesday.
The CCTV report did not identify the foreign warship or specify the date or exact location of the encounter.
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Zhang Jun, an officer aboard the Zunyi, told the broadcaster that his ship had accelerated in high-speed cruise to force the foreign follower to speed up and keep pace.
“During the stand-off, [suddenly its] power and electricity all went out. Its radar stopped transmitting and its navigation lights went dark. That lasted for nearly half an hour,” Zhang said, adding that the Zunyi continued operating normally.
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