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.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had