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.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home