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U.S. Coast Guard monitors Chinese ships off Alaska coast
The US Coast Guard is monitoring Chinese research vessels transiting through the Bering Sea to ensure compliance with international law and national security.
By Bethany Blankley · 2026-08-16T02:27:41.412Z
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 https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press Releases/Article/4549435/coast guard secures the us arctic as chinese research vessels arrive in the ber/ 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. https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press Releases/Article/4293164/us coast guard bolsters surface presence and responds to 2 chinese research ves/
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. https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/article 52344ccf 4a72 40ef abfb 0da95028d2cb.html
“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 https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/article f9173a0e 5225 4047 9ca2 c3f49291336b.html and in autonomous vessel warfare successfully combatting Iran, The Center Square reported. https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/article 64698cb7 39e1 4d0d a7a4 26b067b90a35.html
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 https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/article 52344ccf 4a72 40ef abfb 0da95028d2cb.html 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.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R Texas, speaks at the shipbuilding ceremony for the Arctic Defense facility in Galveston while Republican Gov. Greg Abbott listens, June 1, 2026. Photo: Bethany Blankley / For The Center Square
“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. https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/article 44aab0ab dffd 44ce a4f8 1fb22c305631.html Three are being built in Texas and two in Finland.
The ASC endeavor is an outworking of the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort ICE Pact https://www.dhs.gov/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.
This story originally appeared on thecentersquare.com https://www.thecentersquare.com/alaska/article dd11ca9b 4d85 4014 b3bc 69b5f8970fa1.html .