China appears to criticize U.S.-South Korean military exercise

[S.U.R.B.]

China appears to criticize U.S.-South Korean military exercise
By the CNN Wire Staff
November 27, 2010 -- Updated 0152 GMT (0952 HKT)

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- Tensions between the Koreas remained high Friday as China appeared to criticize the U.S.-South Korean military exercise set to begin Sunday in the Yellow Sea off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula.

"We oppose any party to take any military acts in our exclusive economic zone without permission," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

He said that international law of the sea says that an exclusive economic zone stretches 200 nautical miles from the coast.

The United States is sending the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to join South Korea's forces near the coasts of China and North Korea in the four-day drill. It is set to begin five days after North Korea shelled a South Korean island, killing four South Koreans and wounding 15 others.

North Korea said the South provoked the attack because shells from a South Korean military drill landed in the North's waters. South Korea was holding its annual Hoguk military drill when the North started its shelling.

Xinhua quoted Chinese scholars who also criticized the planned drill by U.S. and South Korean (Republic of Korea) forces. "The United States and ROK should not take sensitive and provocative military actions at such a sensitive time and place," said Major General Luo Yuan, a researcher with the Chinese People's Liberation Army's Military Science Academy.

He likened the planned exercise to "pouring oil onto flames."

But China, North Korea's largest trading partner, also called for an easing of tensions. "As the Korean Peninsula situation is highly complicated and sensitive, all parties concerned should stay calm and exercise restraint," Hong said.

The United States has looked to China to exert its influence on North Korea to ratchet back tensions in the region.

But there was no indication that plan was working. North Korea continued its war rhetoric, saying Friday that South Korea and the United States are recklessly pushing the Korean peninsula toward war by scheduling the joint military drill to begin this weekend.

"The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements to stage again the war exercises targeted against [North Korea] in wake of the grave military provocation they perpetrated against the territorial waters of [the North Korean] side in the West Sea," said the North's official KCNA news agency.

The West Sea, part of the Yellow Sea that is nearest to the Koreas, was the scene of Tuesday's shelling.

"The army and people of [North Korea] are now greatly enraged at the provocation of the puppet group, while getting fully ready to give a shower of dreadful fire and blow up the bulwark of the enemies if they dare to encroach again upon [North Korea's] dignity and sovereignty even in the least," KCNA said Friday.

"The group should not run amok, clearly understanding the will and mettle of the highly alerted army and people of [North Korea] to wipe out the enemies."

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met Friday with North Korean Ambassador to China Chi Jae Ryong and talked with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, Xinhua said. "They exchanged views on issues including the situation of the Korean Peninsula," according to a statement released Friday night by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, it added.

The United States has condemned the attack on Yeonpyeong Island and affirmed its military commitments to South Korea.

Also Friday, South Korea named a new defense minister to replace the official who resigned Thursday amid criticism due to North Korea's sinking of a warship in March and Tuesday's deadly shelling of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island.

South Korea's government nominated Kim Kwan-jin as defense minister, a Blue House media official told CNN.

The National Assembly is to hold a confirmation hearing on the 61-year-old Kim, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2006 to 2008, prior to his retirement.

South Korean and U.S. forces plan to drill in the Yellow Sea from Sunday until Wednesday. The United States has described the drill as defensive in nature. The exercises were planned months ago, and are meant to underscore strong ties between South Korea and the United States, defense officials from both countries have said.

All but about 30 of the island's 1,300 residents have evacuated, with most of them moving to the South Korean mainland, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. About 100 soldiers and workers also were on the island, doing cleanup and repairs.

The North appeared to have carefully targeted Tuesday's attack, a key South Korean lawmaker said Friday after a visit to Yeonpyeong Island.

"My hunch is that North Korea was picking and choosing its aiming point, they are very focused," said South Korean Congresswoman Song Young-sun, an influential member of the National Assembly's Defense Committee. "They attacked gas station, helicopter pad and command and control sites and water tanks. Everything that is directly related to military operations, they have completely smashed."

Asked why North Korea might have attacked, she said: "I think they are doing this training for dual purposes. One is for South Korea: They are arbitrarily suggesting the different maritime border line from our Northern Limit Line. They are trying to verify what they demand, so they are doing exercises and training."

The expected forthcoming succession of power from North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, also plays into it, Song said.

"What Kim Jong Un wants to demonstrate is his influence and his exertion of power, because he needs in a very speedy time to prove within the next couple of years that he is strong and qualified to succeed," she said.

The South has scrambled as a result of Tuesday's shelling.

The Cheonan sinking sparked a public uproar, with many saying that it should not have been possible for North Korea to have damaged South Korea's more modern military. North Korea has denied involvement in the sinking.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak drew criticism for his initial statements after the Yeonpyeong bombardment, when he asked for a stern response but also called for de-escalatory measures to be taken. Later that day, Lee spoke to the military and urged heavy retaliation.

South Korea said Thursday it will strengthen its rules of engagement in the Yellow Sea. South Korean marine forces based in five islands near North Korea and the disputed Northern Limit Line also will be reinforced, a government spokesman said.

The tense maritime border between the two Koreas has become the major military flash point on the Korean peninsula in recent years.

The Yeonpyeong attack was the first direct artillery assault on South Korea since 1953, when an armistice ended fighting, though both Koreas are still technically at war.

China appears to criticize U.S.-South Korean military exercise - CNN.com

 

[mshoaib61]

 

[S.U.R.B.]

And that's just what i was saying before, that how can you expect China to stay silent, when you're putting such a big show right at the door step of China at this time of crisis.
And that's just 4miles away from D.P.R.K. lolzzz ,didn't know that.

 

[yangtomous]

what?appear !Are your forgot China oppose it many times this year.

 

[TruthSeeker]

China is not being a responsible "mentor" of the DPRK. If China would act like the Great Power it aspires to be, the USA wouldn't send the USS George Washington into the Yellow Sea. China's messy and dangerous client is totally China's creation.

 

[ThatDamnGood]

How bad would things be if Seoul got arty-ed?
Might be advantageous at the right time.

 

[S.U.R.B.]

what?appear !Are your forgot China oppose it many times this year.

"We've routinely operated in waters off the Korean peninsula for years," said Captain Darryn James, a Pentagon spokesman. "These latest provocations have been by the North and they need to take ownership of those, not us."

South Korea to up defense budget | Reuters

I don't know to what extent they resisted , especially this year.But this time around in current situation it was expected.
I'll surely like to see the Source/links for this bold part in your post.

 

[yangtomous]

That is DPRK ,it is a independence country.not belong to China what China can do ?Sk do so many drills this year that NK only strike back.unlike USA ,China didn't join with DPRK hold a drill .you are irresponsible for cool down the situation. what you want ,China and DPRK together to aganist with you ?you are threating China Now .not a good choice.

 

[mshoaib61]

BEIJING – This weekend's arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Yellow Sea poses a dilemma for Beijing: Should it protest angrily and aggravate ties with Washington, or quietly accept the presence of a key symbol of American military pre-eminence off Chinese shores?

The USS George Washington, accompanied by escort ships, is to take part in military drills with South Korea following North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island Tuesday that was one of the most serious confrontations since the Korean War a half-century ago.

It's a scenario China has sought to prevent. Only four months ago, Chinese officials and military officers shrilly warned Washington against sending a carrier into the Yellow Sea for an earlier set of exercises. Some said it would escalate tensions after the sinking of a South Korean navy ship blamed on North Korea. Others went further, calling the carrier deployment a threat to Chinese security.

Beijing believes its objections worked. Although Washington never said why, no aircraft carrier sailed into the strategic Yellow Sea, which laps at several Chinese provinces and the Korean peninsula.

This time around, with outrage high over the shelling, the U.S. raising pressure on China to rein in wayward ally North Korea, and a Chinese-American summit in the works, the warship is coming, and Beijing is muffling any criticisms.

"One of the results of North Korea's most recent belligerence has been to make it more difficult for China to condemn U.S. naval deployments in the East China Sea," said Michael Richardson, a visiting research fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. "I think China must be quietly cursing North Korea under their breath."

China's response has so far been limited to expressing mild concern over the exercises. A Foreign Ministry spokesman on Friday reiterated Beijing's long-standing insistence that foreign navies obtain its permission before undertaking military operations inside China's exclusive economic zone, which extends 230 miles (370 kilometers) from its coast.

It wasn't clear where the drills were being held or if they would cross into the Chinese zone.

The statement also reiterated calls for calm and restraint but did not directly mention the Yellow Sea or the planned exercises.

State media have been virtually silent. An editorial in the nationalistic tabloid Global Times worried that a U.S. carrier would upset the delicate balance in the Yellow Sea, ignoring the fact that the George Washington has taken part in drills in those waters numerous times before.

North Korea, by contrast, warned Friday that the U.S.-South Korean military drills were pushing the peninsula to the "brink of war."

A more passive approach this time helps Beijing raise its credibility with Washington and trading partner South Korea, and puts North Korea on notice that its actions are wearing China's patience thin.

"The Chinese government is trying to send Pyongyang a signal that if they continue to be so provocative, China will just leave the North Koreans to themselves," said Zhu Feng, director of Peking University's Center for International and Strategic Studies.

Sending signals is likely to be as far as Beijing goes, however. China fears that tougher action — say cutting the food and fuel assistance Beijing supplies — would destabilize the isolated North Korean dictatorship, possibly leading to its collapse. That could send floods of refugees into northeastern China and result in a pro-U.S. government taking over in the North.

"What China should do is make the North Koreans feel that they have got to stop messing around," Zhu said.

China may also be mindful of its relations with key trading partner Seoul, strained by Beijing's reluctance to condemn Pyongyang over the March ship sinking. Raising a clamor over upcoming drills in the wake of a national tragedy would only further alienate South Korea.

Beijing's mild tone also shows its reluctance to spoil the atmosphere ahead of renewed exchanges with Washington. President Hu Jintao is scheduled to make a state visit to Washington in January hosted by President Barack Obama — replete with a state dinner and other formal trappings that President George W. Bush never gave the Chinese leader.

Before that Gen. Ma Xiaotian, one of the commanders who objected to the George Washington's deployment earlier this year, is due in Washington for defense consultations. Those talks are another step in restoring tattered defense ties, a key goal of the Obama administration.

Chinese fixations about aircraft carriers verge on the visceral. U.S. carriers often figure in Chinese media as a symbol of the American government's ability to project power around the world. The Chinese navy is building a carrier, and keeping U.S. ones out of China's waters is seen as rightful deference to its growing power.

The U.S. is worried about a key principle: the U.S. Navy's right to operate in international waters.

While China doesn't claim sovereignty over the entire Yellow Sea, it has become assertive about its maritime territorial claims and sensitive to U.S. Navy operations in surrounding waters. In the South China Sea, which China claims in its entirety, China has seized foreign fishing boats and harassed U.S. Navy surveillance ships.

In light of such trends, China's protests of the September drills virtually compelled the U.S. Navy to send the George Washington this time, said Alan Romberg of the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, who met with Chinese military commanders in the summer.

"The People's Liberation Army thinks it achieved an initial victory in keeping the U.S. from deploying the George Washington in that first exercise. That guarantees that the George Washington will go there at some point, probably sooner rather than later," Romberg said in an interview in September.

Even if China's reticence holds this time, Beijing is not likely to cede the U.S. Navy carte blanche to range throughout the Yellow Sea.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has stated that China's stance on U.S. naval action in the Yellow Sea remains unchanged. The politically influential and increasingly vocal military is also likely to keep the pressure on the leadership to take a firm stand.

Any affront to Beijing's authority or intrusion into Chinese territorial waters would inflame the Chinese public and require a government response, said Fang Xiuyu, an analyst on Korean issues at Fudan University's Institute of International Studies in Shanghai.

"We hope that the U.S. can exert restraint and not cross that line," Fang said.


Analysis: US carrier visit a dilemma for China - Yahoo! News

 

[siegecrossbow]

Did the South Koreans really shell the North first or am I reading the wrong news?

 

[Nomenclature]

China is not being a responsible "mentor" of the DPRK. If China would act like the Great Power it aspires to be, the USA wouldn't send the USS George Washington into the Yellow Sea. China's messy and dangerous client is totally China's creation.

What non-sense is this?

Before 1990 NK was pretty much a Soviet client state surviving on Soviet handouts. During 1990s after the collapse of U.S.S.R, China and NK was not even on spoken terms. When Deng Xiaoping died, NK government refused even to send condolence. During the great NK famine in the late 1990s, China did not send (much) food aid and the result was over 20,000 refugees crossing over to China. Then we began to send aid to NK, pretty much at the same time when SK began their aid. Besides food, China supplies a minimal amount of oil to NK, while SK gives NK hard currencies (via joint ventures in industrial zones in the North).

Anyway, it's completely ignorant to say NK's mess is somehow China's creation. For all outside powers, Soviet Russia had the greatest influence on NK, then there's China and surprisingly Japan (Japanese colonial propaganda actually provided the basis for NK's racialist far-right ideology).

 

[siegecrossbow]

Anyway, it's completely ignorant to say NK's mess is somehow China's creation. For all outside powers, Soviet Russia had the greatest influence on NK, then there's China and surprisingly Japan (Japanese colonial propaganda actually provided the basis for NK's racialist far-right ideology).

Hmmm I particularly agree with the last part (although people think it is "far left"). Just watch NK propaganda videos (particularly the latest one regarding the shelling incident). The announcer's voice reminded me a great deal of the stereotypical Japanese voice in old Chinese warfilms.

 

[Akasa]

China is not being a responsible "mentor" of the DPRK. If China would act like the Great Power it aspires to be, the USA wouldn't send the USS George Washington into the Yellow Sea. China's messy and dangerous client is totally China's creation.

Acting responsibly doesn't mean "act according to the wishes of the US, even if it means jeopardizing your own safety". North Korea is right on China's border, so it is understandable if China doesn't want to do any drastic moves that could bring the border to chaos.

The US is friendly with Saudi Arabia, yes? Why? Because the US also depends on Saudi Arabia for its oil. Yet the US doesn't criticize Saudi Arabia for their human rights records, because of the critical oil. Then, according to your terms, the US isn't acting "like the Great Power", is it?

 

[ThatDamnGood]

Did the South Koreans really shell the North first or am I reading the wrong news?

They (South) could have triggered it for this.

Okinawa vote to test US-Japan military alliance - Yahoo! News

 

[ThatDamnGood]

Acting responsibly doesn't mean "act according to the wishes of the US, even if it means jeopardizing your own safety". North Korea is right on China's border, so it is understandable if China doesn't want to do any drastic moves that could bring the border to chaos.

The US is friendly with Saudi Arabia, yes? Why? Because the US also depends on Saudi Arabia for its oil. Yet the US doesn't criticize Saudi Arabia for their human rights records, because of the critical oil. Then, according to your terms, the US isn't acting "like the Great Power", is it?

I prefer to respond to such hypocrisy especially when there is this "I will esteemed you less as a result" with the famous line,

You really think I want to give you my mobile number and let you be my facebook friend?

So you esteem me less? Meh!

(Someone with the cartoon please upload here or point me to it!)