PLA general: US drill 'a threat'
By Li Xinran |
July 14, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE planned joint military exercise by the United States and South Korea in the Yellow Sea is an attempt to block China within the "first island chain," a Chinese People's Liberation Army general said yesterday.
The US-South Korean naval drills in the Yellow Sea are billed as a response to North Korea's alleged attack on a South Korean submarine, but the hidden motive is to set up cordon in the Yellow Sea and the first island chain that would deny China access to the Pacific Ocean, Major General Luo Yuan told the website of People's Daily.
Though the drill will be held at high sea, it is only 500 kilometers away from China's capital of Beijing, Luo noted.
"It is too sensitive and too close to China's waters, though the United States denied any violation of public international law," Luo said. "Even Japanese mainstream media say that the Yellow Sea is too sensitive an area of China for others to touch."
The first island chain is a term used by military planners to describe a line through an arc of islands off the Chinese coast, including the Kurile Islands in Japan, the Ryukyu Islands in the Philippines and part of Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo yesterday quoted a South Korea government source as saying that South Korea and the US are reconsidering the joint maritime drill in both the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea in light of China's protest against a huge US military presence on its doorstep.
The idea is to deploy some of the bigger American ships to the east of the Korean Peninsula, instead of the Yellow Sea as originally planned, the report said.
The source said that there is "near-consensus" for turning the planned Yellow Sea drill into an exercise in both the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea to reflect the positions of China and the US.
In that event, a large portion of the key US vessels - including ships from the Seventh US Fleet such as the USS George Washington, an Aegis cruiser and destroyer, and a nuclear-powered attack submarine - would be deployed in the Sea of Japan, the source added.
Luo said that if the 97,000-ton nuclear-powered USS George Washington were to troll the Yellow Sea, as originally planned, it would be worrisome to China.
He said the aircraft carrier has a combat radius of 600 kilometers and radar that can detect cruise missiles within 270 kilometers and aircraft within 556 kilometers. Its carrier-based planes can reach 1,065 kilometers.
"It will definitely be a threat to us," the major general said.
The US-South Korean naval drills in the Yellow Sea are billed as a response to North Korea's alleged attack on a South Korean submarine, but the hidden motive is to set up cordon in the Yellow Sea and the first island chain that would deny China access to the Pacific Ocean, Major General Luo Yuan told the website of People's Daily.
Though the drill will be held at high sea, it is only 500 kilometers away from China's capital of Beijing, Luo noted.
"It is too sensitive and too close to China's waters, though the United States denied any violation of public international law," Luo said. "Even Japanese mainstream media say that the Yellow Sea is too sensitive an area of China for others to touch."
The first island chain is a term used by military planners to describe a line through an arc of islands off the Chinese coast, including the Kurile Islands in Japan, the Ryukyu Islands in the Philippines and part of Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo yesterday quoted a South Korea government source as saying that South Korea and the US are reconsidering the joint maritime drill in both the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea in light of China's protest against a huge US military presence on its doorstep.
The idea is to deploy some of the bigger American ships to the east of the Korean Peninsula, instead of the Yellow Sea as originally planned, the report said.
The source said that there is "near-consensus" for turning the planned Yellow Sea drill into an exercise in both the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea to reflect the positions of China and the US.
In that event, a large portion of the key US vessels - including ships from the Seventh US Fleet such as the USS George Washington, an Aegis cruiser and destroyer, and a nuclear-powered attack submarine - would be deployed in the Sea of Japan, the source added.
Luo said that if the 97,000-ton nuclear-powered USS George Washington were to troll the Yellow Sea, as originally planned, it would be worrisome to China.
He said the aircraft carrier has a combat radius of 600 kilometers and radar that can detect cruise missiles within 270 kilometers and aircraft within 556 kilometers. Its carrier-based planes can reach 1,065 kilometers.
"It will definitely be a threat to us," the major general said.
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