China is today to hold naval exercises in the South China Sea, its maritime authority said, as China’s foreign ministry yesterday accused US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of “smearing” the country.
The exercises, set to take place less than 25km off Hainan Province, follow US-led warnings over China’s growing military and economic presence in an area spanning from the South China Sea to the Pacific islands.
“Military exercises will be held and entry is prohibited,” the Chinese Maritime Safety administration said in a statement on Thursday, warning that an area of about 100km2 would be closed off to maritime traffic for five hours.
China routinely conducts similar drills in waters near its shores, with an exercise in another area of the sea near Hainan scheduled for next week, as well as multiple others along the country’s eastern coastline.
The latest exercises are to start as Beijing faces a growing chorus of warnings from the US and Western allies over its naval ambitions, which critics say are a beachhead for a wider attempt to change the regional balance of power.
“Beijing has engaged in increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity” near Taiwan, Blinken said on Thursday, as he called for efforts to counterbalance China’s “intent to reshape the international order.”
He also said that Beijing has “cut off Taiwan’s relations with countries around the world and [is] blocking it from participating in international organizations.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told reporters in Beijing that the US “spreads false information, exaggerates the China threat, interferes in China’s internal affairs and smears China’s domestic and foreign policies.”
He added that China “firmly opposed” Blinken’s comments, which showed that Washington sought to “contain and suppress China’s development and maintain US hegemony and power.”
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