by Li Xiaokun and Ai Yang – China Daily
According to the Xinhua News Agency, an army unit based at an inland province in the Jinan Military Command ferried combat forces and arms to “a coastal city” in Shandong province on Tuesday.
China’s Central Television Station (CCTV) on Tuesday broadcast footage of the Nanjing Military Command testing a new long-range artillery rocket on land toward the Yellow Sea.
The exercise took place on Sunday, as Washington and Seoul began their joint exercise.
CCTV said it was the first time China carried out such a large-scale long-range artillery rocket drill.
Liu Mingjin, chief of staff of the artillery division, told CCTV that the drill was intended to test the troop’s long-range striking precision.
While Washington and Seoul completed their first joint exercise on Wednesday, Seoul’s Yonhap News Agency quoted a high-level ROK military officer as saying on the same day that the two sides will “present a joint military exercise once every month until the end of the year”.
The official also said a US-ROK drill is scheduled to take place in the Yellow Sea in September.
The exercises, which were initially planned to be carried out in the Yellow Sea, are targeted at the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) for its alleged role in the sinking of the ROK warship Cheonan in March. Pyongyang has vehemently denied the accusations.
The move has also drawn strong criticism from Beijing. The exercises have placed the Chinese capital within striking distance of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which is involved in the drill, Chinese military analysts said.
Hu Zhengyue, a Chinese assistant foreign minister, is leading a delegation visiting the DPRK, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told Xinhua on Wednesday.
“It is a normal exchange between the two foreign ministries,” she said, without providing more details about how long the visit would last or what specifically was on the agenda.
Li Qinggong, deputy secretary-general of the China Council for National Security Policy Studies, said he did not believe the Chinese exercises were directed at the US-ROK drill, because such preparations take a long time and the timing may be a coincidence.
A recent poll conducted by the Washington-based Kissinger Institute on China and the Unites States showed nearly nine in 10 Chinese students and about three in four Chinese citizens consider the US to be the biggest threat to China’s interests, despite Chinese warming to the US over the past decade.
Charles K. Armstrong, a Korea Foundation professor of Korean studies at Columbia University, said that Beijing’s concern is valid, as wariness is sometimes mutual.
“At a time of mounting US concern about Chinese naval expansion, the Chinese may have some justification if they also feel threatened by a US military presence.”