The Chinese people love peace and countries should not threaten each other with the use of force, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said yesterday as he kicked off a large-scale naval parade marking 70 years since the founding of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
Meeting foreign naval officers in the eastern city of Qingdao, Xi said that the navies of the world should work together to protect maritime peace and order.
“The Chinese people love and long for peace, and will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development,” Xi said, in remarks carried by Xinhua news agency.
Photo: AP
“Everyone should respect each other, treat each other as equals, enhance mutual trust, strengthen maritime dialogue and exchanges, and deepen pragmatic cooperation between navies,” he added.
“There must be more discussions and consultations between countries, and there cannot be resorts to force or threats of force at the slightest pretext,” Xi said.
“All countries should adhere to equal consultations, improve crisis communication mechanisms, strengthen regional security cooperation, and promote the proper settlement of maritime-related disputes,” he added.
Xi then boarded the Chinese destroyer Xining, which was only commissioned two years ago, to view the parade under misty skies and intermittent rain, state TV reported.
China’s first domestically produced aircraft carrier, which is still unnamed and currently undergoing sea trials, was not present, although the aircraft carrier Liaoning was, the report added.
China’s last major naval parade was last year in the South China Sea, also overseen by Xi.
The parade featured 32 Chinese vessels and 39 aircraft, as well as warships from 13 foreign countries, including India, Japan, Vietnam and Australia.
A total of 61 countries have sent delegations to the event, which includes a naval symposium today and tomorrow.
The US has sent a low-level delegation to Qingdao, led by the naval attache at its Beijing embassy, and no ships.
However, the USS Blue Ridge, the command ship of the Japan-based US Seventh Fleet, is currently visiting Hong Kong, having arrived in the territory on Saturday.
A senior US naval official aboard the ship said that the Seventh Fleet would continue its extensive operations across the region, including freedom of navigation operations to challenge excessive maritime claims.
The official said that he believed an incident in September last year in which a Chinese destroyer sailed within 45m of the US destroyer USS Decatur was an isolated event and other routine interactions at sea with PLAN had proved more professional.
“My point to the PLAN is that I expect your teams and units to operate professionally and safely... Obey the rules of the road and follow good seamanship, and we will operate throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific with no issues,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity late on Monday.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in