The U.S. military has been watching a Chinese naval vessel operating off the coast of Hawaii this week.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Oahu-based U.S. Indo-Pacific Command confirmed that it is “monitoring a (Chinese People’s Liberation Army ) vessel which was operating in international waters in the vicinity of Hawaii.”
U.S. officials previously have alluded to Chinese intelligence gathering at sea near Hawaii, and also have acknowledged specific instances of Russian naval forces operating near the Hawaiian Islands. Russian operations have included several instances of spy ships sailing near the islands and a large exercise in 2021 that the Russian Pacific Fleet called its largest since the end of the Cold War.
Military officials offered few details about the latest sighting of a Chinese military vessel near Hawaii. It comes as Beijing has been asserting its presence in the Pacific islands as it competes with the U.S. and its allies for power and influence in the region.
China has worked to bring island nations into its Belt and Road Initiative, a series of infrastructure projects funded by Beijing to promote trade with China. Some analysts have charged that many of these projects have “dual use ” applications that not only promote commerce, but potentially set up areas for Chinese military and intelligence to operate in the future.
American naval ships also have continually conducted operations in the vicinity of China. That includes routine “freedom of navigation ” operations in South China Sea, a busy waterway that more than a third of all international trade moves through and that Beijing claims as its exclusive territory. Tensions have been on the rise in the region as neighboring countries clash with China over territorial and navigation rights.
Beijing has made a show of bolstering aid and diplomatic engagement in the Pacific islands as President Donald Trump returned to office. Shortly into his second administration, Trump tasked billionaire Elon Musk with slashing the U.S. budget. Among the targets were aid programs—including those in the Pacific—several of which were temporarily or completely shut down in the early months.
During a congressional hearing in April, INDOPACOM Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo was questioned about the potential impacts of proposed cuts to U.S. interests in the Pacific. Paparo told lawmakers “USAID is under review, and I’ll be advocating most strongly for that aid for all of the countries … The People’s Republic of China sees these opportunities, and they seize them.”
Lately, official Chinese military deployments in the Pacific have become more visible—and much more assertive.
In February, commercial planes flying between New Zealand and Australia were diverted after Chinese warships sailing down Australia’s eastern coast conducted live-fire exercises in waters between the two countries.
The Chinese warships sailed in and out of Australia’s exclusive economic zone as they circumnavigated the continent before making their way back north toward Indonesia in early March. The voyage caused a stir in Australia as the country mulls the state of its own military and whether it has relied too much on the United States.
Peter Hartcher, the political and international editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, wrote at the time that “China’s navy is illustrating Australia’s vulnerability at the exact moment that the U.S. is demonstrating American unreliability. … We’re so exposed that we face the next decade near-naked.”
The U.S. also has been seeking to emphasize Oceania more in its Pacific strategy. In April and May, the USS Blue Ridge—the flagship of the U.S. 7th Fleet—made its way into the South Pacific and made stops in New Caledonia, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. The South Pacific voyage by Blue Ridge, which usually sticks to the Western Pacific, stood out.
The Chinese navy has in the past sailed to Hawaii to participate in the biennial Rim of the Pacific Exercise as an invited guest in 2014 and 2016.
Both times the Chinese Navy also sent at least one uninvited spy ship to monitor portions of the exercise from afar. But Adm. Samuel Locklear, who led America’s Pacific forces in 2014, told reporters at the time “the good news about this is that it’s a recognition, I think, or acceptance by the Chinese for what we’ve been saying to them for some time.”
“Military operations and survey operations in another country’s (exclusive economic zone )—where you have your own national security interest—are within international law and are acceptable, ” Locklear argued. “This is a fundamental right nations have.”
After participating in RIMPAC in 2016, Chinese ships continued sailing east for a friendly port call in San Diego. The Chinese navy was slated to return to RIMPAC in 2018, but was disinvited as relations between Beijing and Washington soured.
© 2025 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Visit www.staradvertiser.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
