China voiced on Thursday its clearest opposition yet to naval exercises that South Korea and the United States plan to conduct in the Yellow Sea to warn North Korea against provocations in the wake of the regime's sinking of a South Korean warship.
Beijing's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular press briefing that China "resolutely opposes" foreign warships and military aircraft coming close to Chinese waters and conducting activities that affect Chinese security interests.
The comment represents Beijing's clearest response yet to the planned exercises.
"We hope relevant countries will maintain calm and restraint and refrain from acts that intensify tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the region," the spokesman said.
South Korea and the U.S. are planning to stage massive anti-submarine exercises in waters off the Korean Peninsula's west coast in a show of force against North Korea in the wake of the regime's deadly sinking of the warship Cheonan.
Officials in Seoul have said the drills will be purely defensive and are aimed at warning the North against future provocations. But China has expressed complaints about the maneuvers that are expected to involve an aircraft carrier, an Aegis-equipped destroyer, a nuclear submarine and fighter jets.
"The exercises are a matter that is being discussed as part of a response to the Cheonan's sinking and in the context of the Korea-U.S. alliance," Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun said Thursday. "We will make our own independent judgment and take steps based on that."
Kim also said that China must be well aware of the "nature of the joint exercises."
Privately, some officials in Seoul have expressed displeasure over China's move, saying it is South Korea's sovereign right to determine whether to hold exercises in its own territorial waters.
Seoul and Washington have not yet announced when they will hold the exercises. The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday that the drills will come after the U.N. Security Council takes action against the North's sinking of the Cheonan.
South Korea referred the sinking to the Council last month, asking the global security body to censure the communist North. U.N. negotiations to adopt a Council document have moved slowly as China, Pyongyang's traditional backer, has refused to get tough on Pyongyang.
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