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China planning to hold navy drill in US¡¦
face
REUTERS , BEIJING
Monday, Aug 30, 2010, Page 1
The Chinese navy will hold a live-ammunition exercise this
week in the Yellow Sea, where Washington and Seoul announced their own plan for
a military exercise that has riled Beijing, the Chinese Ministry of Defense said
yesterday.
The ministry said a naval fleet would stage the drill from Wednesday to Saturday
in the sea between China and the Korean Peninsula, Xinhua news agency reported.
¡§This is an annual routine training exercise, mainly involving the firing of
shipboard artillery,¡¨ the ministry said, according to Xinhua.
The announcement, nonetheless, follows a pattern of China publicizing its own
military exercises in parallel to those held by Washington and Seoul, which
Beijing has criticized as destabilizing at a time of tensions over North Korea.
China said its naval exercise would be held off Qingdao, meaning they would be
well away from the US-South Korea exercises in waters closer to the Korean
coast.
Friction between Beijing and Washington over Chinese maritime claims and US
naval activities has added to irritants between the two countries, which have
also sparred this year over Taiwan, Tibet, the Internet and Chinese exchange
rate policy. The US has criticized Chinese claims to swathes of the South China
Sea, where Taiwan and several Southeast Asian states also assert sovereignty.
The US has said it will conduct an anti-submarine warfare exercise with South
Korea in the Yellow Sea early next month. That is intended to send a warning to
North Korea that Washington is committed to defending Seoul, the Pentagon said
this month.
Last month, the US and South Korea held a naval drill in the Sea of Japan off
the Korean Peninsula, prompting condemnation from China, which answered with its
own heavily publicized military exercises.
Last month¡¦s drill was initially scheduled to take place in the Yellow Sea, but
was moved to the other side of the Korean Peninsula after objections from
Beijing.
The US and South Korea accuse the North of torpedoing a South Korean naval ship
in March, killing 46 sailors.
Chinese military newspapers have said the US-led military exercises in the
Yellow Sea would be unduly provocative.
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