Chinese Research ship off coast of Alaska

Chinese Research Ship Detected Off Alaska Coast

A China-flagged research vessel was detected Friday off the coast of Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard reported Saturday that the Xue Long 2, an icebreaker, was detected about 290 nautical miles north of Utqiagvik, Alaska, in the North American Arctic.

The Xue Long 2 is operated by China's Polar Research Institute.

The ship was in the U.S.'s Extended Continental Shelf, or ECS, which is a portion of the continental shelf that goes beyond 200 miles nautical miles off the coast, according to the State Department. The ship was determined to be 130 nautical miles inside the ECS.

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This comes after four Russian military planes were spotted and tracked flying near the Alaskan coast Tuesday by North American Aerospace Defense Command. [cbs]

The aircraft flew through a section of international airspace called the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone. While the Alaska ADIZ is considered part of international airspace, it is defined as an area where sovereign U.S. airspace ends but "that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security," according to NORAD.