A US decision to use a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in joint naval drills with South Korea constitutes a “fresh provocation” to China and its neighbors, a senior naval officer said yesterday.
In a commentary published in the official China Daily, Rear Admiral Yang Yi (楊毅) said Washington would “pay a costly price for its muddled decision” to participate in further drills near Chinese territory over Beijing’s objection.
Yang also warned it was “inadvisable” to push a country of 1.3 billion people, noting that there was instead wide scope for US-China naval cooperation should Washington choose the route of caution.
Last week, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said future joint US-South Korea drills would involve the nuclear-powered USS George Washington in the Yellow Sea, which separates the Korean Peninsula from China.
“This would be a fresh provocation following a series of joint US-ROK activities that have caused tensions in East Asia,” Yang said, referring to South Korea by its official abbreviation.
“Offending Chinese people is not in the fundamental interest of the US,” warned the rear admiral, a former director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University. “Any activity aimed at pushing a country with a 1.3-billion populace with enormous potential would be inadvisable.”
The US and South Korea last month conducted massive joint naval and air exercises in the Sea of Japan, which were opposed by Beijing.
The drills were a show of force against North Korea — China’s ally — following the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed by Seoul and its allies on a North Korean submarine.
China is North Korea’s closest ally and trade partner and Beijing has refused to join in international condemnation of Pyongyang for the incident.
Beijing had expressed concern about the July 25 to July 28 drill, which was initially supposed to be held in the Yellow Sea, but was later relocated to the Sea of Japan after Beijing’s protests.
China staged its own naval, air and artillery exercises late last month, though it was not clear if the drills had been pre-planned or were in response to the US-South Korea exercise.
“Washington’s adherence to the Cold War mentality and its excessive dependence on military means to resolve international disputes will lead the superpower to bigger strategic setbacks,” Yang said. “It is up to the US to take some initiatives to change its long-established position for the sake of better bilateral ties.”
US officials worry that Beijing’s more assertive stance in the Pacific Ocean could undercut the US’ long-dominant naval power in Asia. China maintains that its army build-up is purely for national defense and poses no threat to other countries.

DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km

Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s

‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on

POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...