Reuters:
HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) – China has denied a request for a U.S. warship to visit Hong Kong, the U.S. consulate in the Chinese city said on Tuesday, amid rising tension between Beijing and Washington over trade and a U.S. decision to sanction the Asian nation’s military.
The amphibious assault ship Wasp had been due to make a port call in the former British colony of Hong Kong in October, diplomatic sources said. “The Chinese Government did not approve a request for a U.S. port visit to Hong Kong by the USS Wasp,” a consulate spokeswoman said.
“We have a long track record of successful port visits to Hong Kong, and we expect that to continue,” she added. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang did not directly answer a question on whether China had denied the request.
