RedState
Arctic Showdown: US Coast Guard vs. Chinese 'Research' Ships
By Ward Clark | 3:57 PM on July 18, 2026
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AP Photo/David Goldman
There's an old Cold War game called a freedom of navigation exercise, in which one party steams or flies within sight of another party's coast, within eyesight but outside of territorial waters, perhaps within the Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ) of the other party, which is legal but provocative. This has traditionally been done with military aircraft and warships, but sometimes "commercial" vessels are roped into such duty. These exercises can be a good opportunity for intelligence-gathering, too; back in the Cold War, U.S. Navy task groups at sea were often shadowed by Soviet "fishing trawlers" that were oddly festooned with antennae.
China, in a new version of this old game, is using what it is calling "research vessels" to probe around the approaches to the Arctic, including passing into the Alaska EEZ and poking around in the Barents Sea. The United States Coast Guard has been keeping an eye on them.
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.
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READ MORE: https://redstate.com/wardclark/2026/07/18/arctic-showdown-us-coast-guard-vs-chinese-research-ships-n2204474
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