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BEIJING: China will hold live-fire naval exercises in the Yellow Sea this week, state media reported Sunday, after voicing opposition to similar war games to be staged there by the United States and South Korea.
The Beihai fleet of the navy of the People's Liberation Army will conduct a "live ammunition drill" from Wednesday to Saturday off the coast of eastern China's Qingdao city, Xinhua news agency reported.
"This is an annual routine training, mainly involving the shooting of shipboard artillery," said the report, citing China's defence ministry.
The United States and South Korea are planning a new round of joint drills in the Yellow Sea in September in another show of force against North Korea following the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
Any military drills involving the United States in the Yellow Sea are a sensitive issue because of the area's proximity to China and the disputed maritime boundary between South and North Korea.
China has bristled at the idea of a US aircraft carrier group patrolling waters near its coast, although the US military has said the planned anti-submarine exercise in September would not involve a carrier.
"This would be a fresh provocation following a series of joint US-ROK (South Korean) activities that have caused tensions in East Asia," Chinese Rear Admiral Yang Yi said in an August 13 commentary in the China Daily.
"Offending Chinese people is not in the fundamental interest of the US... any activity aimed at pushing a country with a 1.3-billion populace with enormous potential would be inadvisable."
The United States and South Korea have staged massive joint naval and air exercises in the nearby Sea of Japan which were opposed by Beijing.
The drills followed the sinking of the Cheonan in March which Seoul and its allies said was caused by a North Korean torpedo attack.
China is North Korea's closest ally and trade partner and Beijing has refused to join in international condemnation of Pyongyang for the incident.
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 exercises.
-AFP/wk
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