Map shows where Chinese ships spotted off U.S. coast

The United States Coast Guard spotted four Chinese naval ships near an archipelago in Alaska over the weekend, at least the fourth encounter between the two sides near the “Last Frontier” state in recent years.

China’s military ships were sailing in the Bering Sea on Saturday and Sunday, north of the Amchitka Pass and the Amukta Pass of the Aleutian Islands, according to the Coast Guard’s statement, which did not identify the types of Chinese naval vessels it detected.

The islands lie between the south of Bering Sea and the north of Pacific Ocean. The Amchitka Pass is a 50-mile wide strait while the Amukta Pass is 43 miles wide. The Bering Sea is the doorway to the strategic Arctic region, separating Russia’s Far East and Alaska.

China’s vessels were sailing in international waters but within the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the Coast Guard said. They responded to radio communications and said they were conducting freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs), according to the agency.

The U.S. EEZ extends 200 nautical miles offshore and is the largest in the world, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, spanning over 13,000 miles of coastline and containing 3.4 million square nautical miles of ocean. This zone extends beyond the seaward boundary of the 12-nautical mile territorial sea.

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea grants a coastal state the sovereign right to exploit natural resources within its EEZ, and it shall have due regard to the rights and duties of other states.

The U.S Navy routinely conducts FONOPs in waters near China, including in the contested South China Sea. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Tom Shugart, a defense analyst and former Navy submariner, noted differences between the two countries’ FONOPs.

“U.S. FONOPs are conducted to challenge excessive maritime claims made contrary to international law,” he wrote. But the U.S.—unlike China in the South China Sea—does not restrict operations within its EEZ.

U.S. Coast Guard cutter Kimball was tasked with shadowing the Chinese ships until they departed waters around the Aleutian Islands and transited into the North Pacific Ocean.

A Coast Guard photo released by the U.S. Defense Department showed the Kimball operating alongside the polar icebreaker Healy on July 3 near the Unimak Pass in the Aleutian Islands.

Both ships “patrol the waters around Alaska to maintain maritime safety, security, and stability in the region,” the Coast Guard said.

The Kimball is a multi-mission national security cutter operating from its homeport in Honolulu, Hawaii, according to the Coast Guard. It has a displacement of 4,500 tons and a range of 13,000 nautical miles—and is equipped with automated weapons systems.

A Chinese military observer on X noted that, based on bulletins released by the Japanese Defense Ministry’s Joint Staff Office, four Chinese naval ships transited near northern Japan and entered the North Pacific Ocean from June 30 to July 1.

It was not immediately clear whether they were the same ships spotted by the Coast Guard in the Bering Sea.

China’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a Newsweek email seeking comment.

It was not the first time China had sent an armada to the Alaska coast. In the third encounter last August, 11 Russian and Chinese ships sailed close to the Aleutian Islands, where they were monitored by four U.S. destroyers and maritime patrol aircraft.