Adm. Gary Roughead, in his first Pentagon interview since becoming the chief of naval operations eight weeks ago, said he has no way of directly contacting his Chinese counterpart in Beijing.

The USS Kitty Hawk, which has its home port near Tokyo, was forced to return to Japan early when Chinese authorities at the last minute refused to let the warship and its escort vessels enter Hong Kong harbor.

"That was surprising and not helpful," Roughead said. "The Kitty Hawk had been planning to go in there and it was disruptive to many people's plans."

Roughead, who was the Hawai'i-based commander of U.S. naval forces in the Pacific before he replaced Adm. Mike Mullen as chief of naval operations on Sept. 29, said he was even more troubled by China's refusal, several days prior to the Kitty Hawk incident, to permit two U.S. Navy minesweepers to enter Hong Kong harbor to escape an approaching storm and receive fuel. The minesweepers, the Patriot and the Guardian, were instead refueled at sea and returned safely to their home port in Japan, he said.

"As someone who has been going to sea all my life, if there is one tenet that we observe it's when somebody is in need you provide (assistance) and you sort it out later," the admiral said. "And that, to me, was more bothersome, so I look forward to having discussions with the PLA navy leadership," he said, referring to the People's Liberation Army.

Roughead said the Chinese actions would not stop the U.S. Navy from continuing to seek port visits to Hong Kong.