China’s People Liberation Army (PLA) demanded a tough response to US plans to send an aircraft carrier to naval exercises near its coast, saying that “respect” was at stake.
A commentary in the Liberation Army Daily yesterday laid bare rancour over Washington’s naval exercises with South Korea, and over its criticism of Chinese territorial claims to swathes of the South China Sea, where Taiwan and several Southeast Asian states also have claims.
“A country needs respect, and a military also needs respect. If someone doesn’t hurt me, I won’t hurt him; but if someone hurts me, I must hurt him,” Major General Luo Yuan (羅援) wrote in the paper. “For the Chinese people and the Chinese military, those are by no means idle words.”
The angry commentary in the PLA’s top mouthpiece, carefully vetted by censors, also underscored military pressures weighing on Beijing as it crafts policy.
The US and South Korea held a naval drill last month in the Sea of Japan off the Korean Peninsula. China answered with its own heavily publicized military exercises.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell last week said the nuclear-powered carrier George Washington, which joined in the earlier exercise, would participate in a follow-up drill in the Yellow Sea, between the Korean Peninsula and China.
Last month’s drill was also initially scheduled to take place in the Yellow Sea, but was moved to other side of the peninsula after objections from Beijing.
Morrell did not give a date for the next joint naval exercises, according a transcript on the Pentagon Web site.
The Liberation Army Daily commentary indicated that friction over any fresh US military activities in seas near China would dog bilateral relations.
The US is “pushing its security boundary to the doorstep of others — the Yellow Sea, South China Sea and so on,” Luo wrote. “In their eyes, the security of other states and peoples is secondary, even meaningless.”
Chinese papers have carried several harsh commentaries since maritime tensions flared between Beijing and Washington. However, Luo’s strong words in the PLA’s top newspaper suggest the PLA sees its prestige at stake and wants a response from Beijing.
“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,” Luo wrote.
Luo is among a group of PLA officers who use blogs and newspapers as platforms to voice tough views on foreign policy issues.
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