China on Tuesday denied media reports that an artillery drill in the East China Sea was in response to a planned military exercise between South Korea and the US.
The six-day, live ammunition exercise that began yesterday in the East China Sea off China’s coast was seen by some analysts as a “response to a [planned] joint exercise between the United States and Republic of Korea navies in the Yellow Sea,” said the China Daily, the country’s official English-language newspaper.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said there was no such link and a Chinese military officer said the timing was coincidental.
“This is a regular military exercise,” Qin told a regular news conference. “This is not related to the situation on the Korean Peninsula.”
Li Daguang (李大光), a professor at National Defense University and a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer, said the exercise was “not aimed at the US-South Korea joint exercise.”
“The PLA artillery exercise in the East China Sea and the joint US-South Korea exercise in the Yellow Sea are a complete coincidence,” Li told the Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong newspaper under Chinese control.
“The outside world shouldn’t read anything into this,” Li said.
The Yellow Sea lies to the north of the East China Sea and the areas of the two exercises would not overlap.
The Foreign Ministry said last week it was concerned about reports a US aircraft carrier could join the anti-submarine exercise with South Korea following a standoff with North Korea over the sinking of a warship from the South.
“Though the Chinese government did not say anything about the drill, anybody with common sense on military strategy will bet that they are related,” Shi Yinhong (時殷弘), an expert on Sino-US relations at Renmin University in Beijing, told the China Daily.
The joint exercise that had been expected last month will most likely take place this month, although a date has yet to be set, the Pentagon said on Monday.
Washington has not said officially whether an aircraft carrier would participate, as some news reports citing Pentagon sources have suggested.
Beijing has been angered by US navy ships engaging in surveillance in waters close to China’s southern coast.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique