By DPA
Hong Kong : A US aircraft carrier carrying 8,000 servicemen and women was headed toward its home port in Japan Friday after a U-turn by China that allowed it to dock in Hong Kong for the US Thanksgiving holiday came too late.
Nearly 300 spouses and children flew to the former British colony to meet the sailors for Thursday’s holiday, but China refused for 24 hours to allow the USS Kitty Hawk to weigh anchor there.
When the decision was reversed Thursday afternoon, the aircraft carrier and its support vessels had already begun sailing back to its base in Japan after a frustrating 24 hours in limbo.
No reason was given by China for its initial refusal to allow the Kitty Hawk into Hong Kong, and the incident infuriated businesses who stood to make millions of US dollars from the four-day port call.
The US military commander in the Pacific, Admiral Timothy Keating, was quoted by government-run radio station RTHK as saying he was “perplexed and concerned” at the snub.
China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry declined to say anything about the refusal but at a briefing Thursday said it finally decided to allow the aircraft carrier to dock in Hong Kong on “humanitarian grounds.”
Restaurant and bars in the popular Wan Chai nightclub district had put up bunting and posters to greet the servicemen and women on what should have been a bumper Thanksgiving for them.
One restaurant-bar told the South China Morning Post that the cancellation had cost it more than $250,000 in food and beer sales.
US vessels are normally only refused permission to visit Hong Kong at times of military tension with China such as in the wake of the collision between a US spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet over Hainan Island in 2001.
The Kitty Hawk incident came at a time when relations between the US and China are comparatively good with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates having visited Beijing earlier this month.
However, Washington irked Beijing in October when US President George W. Bush received the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, at the White House and presented him later with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest US civilian award, in Capitol Hill.
Although the Dalai Lama has denied he is a separatist, Beijing accuses him of seeking independence for Tibet.
China must give approval for all foreign military visits to Hong Kong, which reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, but permission is usually given as a formality.