US carrier heads for Yellow Sea

Beijing/New York - After days of hesitation, the Pentagon has decided to send an aircraft carrier to the Yellow Sea in upcoming joint drills with the Republic of Korea (ROK) despite China's strong objections, a Pentagon spokesman has said.

Chinese scholars said the move is likely to draw a harsh response from Beijing, and cast a shadow over China's already chilly military relations with the United States.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said on Thursday local time that the US will send the USS George Washington supercarrier, which participated in last month's joint drills between the US and the ROK in the Sea of Japan, to the Yellow Sea for their upcoming exercise.

He did not give specific dates for the exercise in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan, but the Associated Press said he was referring to the joint annual exercise named "Ulchi Freedom Guardian" scheduled for Aug 16 to 26.

"China will definitely react harshly to the move. It's hard to predict its specific reaction, but that will for sure cast a shadow over Sino-US military relations," said Rear Admiral Yang Yi, former head of strategic studies at the People's Liberation Army's National Defense University.

The ministries of foreign affairs and national defense did not comment on the information as of press time on Friday.

After strong and repeated protests from China over the initial plan of sending the US carrier to drills in the Yellow Sea, which Chinese experts warned would place the Chinese capital within the carrier's striking distance, the Pentagon switched the Japan-based carrier to the Sea of Japan in the July drill.

Though many saw it as a US effort not to upset China, US officials stressed that the locations of its exercises was only up to Washington.

The ROK announced after the July exercise that the two sides will continue to conduct "a joint military exercise every month until the end of the year".

China, on its part, has undertaken intensified military exercises along the Yellow Sea involving several military commands and all of its three fleets before and during the US-ROK drill.

William H. Tobey, senior fellow at Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, told China Daily that Beijing should not feel threatened by the US-ROK naval exercises, "which in no way endanger Chinese interests".

Washington and Seoul claimed their drills were targeting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for its alleged role in the sinking of an ROK warship in March. Pyongyang has vehemently denied the accusations.

But Yang Yi said the Pentagon's decision to send its aircraft carrier to the Yellow Sea from the other side of the Korean Peninsula shows it did not only take the DPRK into consideration.

"On one side it is showing support to its ally the ROK, and on the other side it is deterring other countries in the region, especially China," Yang said.

Despite the previous US concession on the issue, there are still fierce battles among different interest groups inside the US, he added.

Li Jie, a researcher with the Chinese navy's military academy, said the US is bound to gradually seek a bigger say in East Asia.

"It will never give up the region and will take a real step sooner or later."

Air Force Colonel Dai Xu, a renowned military strategist, said in an article published on the website of the Xinhua News Agency on Friday that China should take a firm line regarding the recent fast US expansion in the waters near China, including its "10 military exercises in the Yellow Sea".

"The US does not have the right to repeatedly endanger China's security," he wrote.

"Inside the diplomat's velvet gloves, there should be powerful iron hands.

"It seems such moves will result in confrontation, but actually it is the easiest way to avoid conflicts. Because the US respects such rivals," said Dai.

The article drew more than 22,000 comments on a major Chinese portal website within 10 hours on Friday, mostly in agreement.

Also on Friday, a major ROK naval exercise went into its second day in the Yellow Sea, the largest-ever anti-submarine exercise in its history.

The DPRK has threatened "the most powerful" retaliation if the ROK triggers a conflict during the exercise.

China Daily

(China Daily 08/07/2010 page7)