PLA condemns naval drill plans
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China's People Liberation Army has condemned a second round of United States-South Korean naval drills planned in the Yellow Sea in coming weeks, vowing it would respond in kind.
China opposes actions by foreign military ships and planes in waters near its coast that could "affect China's security interests," Major General Luo Yuan wrote in a commentary in the Liberation Army Daily yesterday.
"If no one harms me, I harm no one, but if someone harms me, I must harm them," Luo wrote. "As far as the Chinese people and the Chinese military are concerned, these are not joking remarks."
The US and South Korea last month held a joint naval drill in the Sea of Japan off the Korean Peninsula, which brought condemnation from China.
A Pentagon spokesman last week said the nuclear-powered George Washington aircraft carrier, which joined in the earlier exercise, would take part in a follow-up drill in the Yellow Sea between the Korean Peninsula and China.
China has repeatedly criticized the drills, saying they risked heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula and ignored its objections to any foreign military exercises off its coast.
The US is "pushing its security boundary to the doorstep of others - the Yellow Sea, South China Sea and so on," wrote Luo. "In their eyes, the security of other states and peoples is secondary, even meaningless."
He added: "We don't want to make enemies of any country. But whoever ignores our solemn stance and core interests, persisting in doing as he pleases and bullying us too far, we will never fear."
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