Special to WorldTribune.com
Bill Gertz, Washington Free Beacon
China’s military launched live-fire naval warfare exercises in the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday, further raising tensions among states in the region.
The war games were announced by the Chinese maritime security agency and included a warning for all ships to keep out of three areas near Hainan Island, according to the official PLA Daily military newspaper.
The live-fire drills come days after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) criticized China for militarizing new, artificially created islands in the sea. The association stated in a final communiqué issued last week that China’s island building has “increased tensions” in the region. …
Secretary of State John Kerry in Malaysia on Thursday voiced “serious concerns” over China’s “massive” land reclamation and militarization in the sea. … “These rights, I would remind everybody, are universal rights and they must be respected by every nation, large and small.”airspace.
Former State Department China specialist John Tkacik said the announcement of live-fire drills “is designed to get the ASEAN states and the U.S. accustomed to China’s ‘legitimate right’ to hold such military demonstrations in ‘Chinese Waters.’”
“Washington should start gaming their future responses as the PLA gradually inches these drills farther and farther into disputed waters,” Tkacik said. “U.S. will need to coordinate with the Philippines and Taiwan as future PLA live fire drills begin to take place beyond China’s internationally-recognized maritime spaces.”
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China’s response to region’s concerns about militarization of the sea: Live-fire naval exercises added by World Tribune Life on
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