U.S. Coast Guard monitors Chinese ships off Alaska coast

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

The U.S. Coast Guard is actively engaged in Arctic defense, monitoring and dealing with potential national security threats posed by Chinese ships. Last summer, the Coast Guard chased away Chinese vessels.

This week, a USCG Arctic cutter crew monitored two Chinese research ships that entered U.S. waters. The Chinese-flagged Xue Long transited north through the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and over the U.S. extended continental shelf in the Bering Sea with a declared destination of the Arctic. The Xue Long 2, another China-flagged vessel, also transited to the Arctic, the USCG announced late Friday.

“For the first time this year, Chinese vessels were tracked transiting through the U.S. EEZ and over the U.S. extended continental shelf (continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles of shore) in the Bering Sea,” the USCG said. In response, the USCG Cutter Munro (WMSL 755) executed Operation Frontier Sentinel to actively monitor the vessels as they transited north. The cutter’s operation was “designed to protect American sovereign rights, ensure consistency with international law, and position the Coast Guard to rapidly respond to any detected malign activity,” the USCG said.

Foreign vessels are permitted to operate within the U.S. EEZ and through the U.S. extended continental shelf in accordance with international law. Foreign vessels that claim to conduct marine scientific research within these regions require advance permission from the federal government and are required to share information they collect, the USCG said.

In these cases, the USCG crew remained “vigilant to ensure their activities comply with established international law,” the USCG said.

Rear Adm. Bob Little, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Arctic District, also said the USCG is working with the departments of War and State to “actively respond to competitor activities across an increasingly contested Arctic.”

This was after the USCG last fall also responded to two Chinese research ships operating off the Alaska coast over a several-day period. One was a Chinese flagged vessel, JIDI, operating approximately 265 miles northwest of Utqiagvik, Alaska. The other was Zong Shan Da Xue Ji Di, operating approximately 230 miles north of the same location, the USCG said.

The announcement comes six weeks after American officials sounded the alarm about national security threats in the Arctic.

“This is a time of historic and strategic consequence for the nation, and the Coast Guard is in greater demand by the American people than ever before,” U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Kevin Lunday said in Galveston last month, The Center Square reported.

“The U.S. is an Arctic nation because of the state of Alaska … our first line of defense in the high north leading into the Arctic. While Galveston, Texas, may be thousands of miles from the Arctic Circle, let me be clear, the defense of our northern border and approaches in the Arctic Ocean begins with” new U.S. Coast Guard Arctic Security Cutters being built in Texas, Lunday said.

Texas is leading in border security, in Arctic defense and in autonomous vessel warfare successfully combatting Iran, The Center Square reported.

Russian ships in the Arctic also create a national security risk because their ships outnumber U.S. ships by nearly 50 to 1, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told The Center Square. China operates five in the Arctic. A new USCG Arctic cutter shipbuilding effort in Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas, is underway to counter it.

“The numbers are staggering,” Cruz said referring to Chinese and Russian ships in the Arctic.

“Going into last year, we were losing in the Arctic,” he said. “Russia has invested in a very major way. China is investing in a very major way. Frankly, it was a bipartisan failure that went back several administrations of the United States not investing adequately in the Arctic.”

“The Arctic is too critical for national defense, for natural resources for keeping America safe,” he added. With a record $25 billion investment in the USCG through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the U.S. has invested several billion dollars into building polar ice cutters in Texas.

Davie Defense America, backed by Davie Shipbuilding in Canada and Helsinki Shipyard in Finland, is constructing five polar ice cutters after being awarded $3.5 billion, The Center Square reported. Three are being built in Texas and two in Finland.

The ASC endeavor is an outworking of the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE Pact) a trilateral initiative among American, Finnish and Canadian leaders to advance shipbuilding and Arctic defense.

“Last summer, as a clear demonstration of our resolve, three Coast Guard cutters intercepted and chased away five Chinese research vessels operating in the outer continental shelf in the Arctic North of Alaska,” Lundy said. “We’re actively countering challenges to U.S. sovereignty there, working alongside our allies, but we cannot protect our sovereign interests unless we are … operating continuously” in the Arctic.