BEIJING: China has said that it will conduct “routine” naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean, a week after US President Barack Obama launched a major diplomatic campaign to assert the United States as a Pacific power.
The Chinese defense ministry said that the exercises, to be held later this month, did not target any particular country, but the announcement came against a background of growing tensions over maritime disputes in the Asia-Pacific region.
Obama, who has dubbed himself as America’s first Pacific president, said last week that the United States would deploy up to 2,500 Marines to Australia and tighten air force cooperation, a move seen as a response to China’s growing regional might.
China’s freedom of navigation “shall not be subject to any form of hindrance,” the defense ministry said in a brief statement on Wednesday night announcing the naval exercises in the western Pacific.
“This is a routine drill arranged under an annual plan, does not target any particular country or target, and complies with relevant international laws and international practice,” it added.
Obama flew home on Saturday after a seven-day tour of Pacific nations during which he attended a trio of summits and announced greater military involvement in the region.
“Here is what this region must know. As we end today’s wars, I have directed my national security team to make our presence and missions in the Asia-Pacific a top priority,” the US president announced during a visit to Australia.
Washington’s new diplomatic campaign to assert itself as a Pacific power has alarmed China, which sees initiatives like stationing Marines in Australia as intruding into its sphere of influence.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has warned against interference by “external forces” in regional territorial disputes including in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), a strategic and resource-rich area where several nations have overlapping claims.
China claims all of the maritime area, as does Taiwan, while four Southeast Asian countries declare ownership of parts of it, with Vietnam and the Philippines accusing Chinese forces of increasing aggression there.
The competing claims have led to periodic outbreaks of tension between China and its neighbors in recent years, including with the Philippines and Vietnam in recent months, and with Japan in late 2010.
Asia-Pacific leaders held talks on the disputed territories at a summit on Saturday, in a major diplomatic coup for the United States, which had pushed for the topic to be raised, despite objections from Beijing.
China’s official comments on Obama’s trip were muted, but the state-run Xinhua News Agency said that Asian suspicions would be raised by the plan to base troops in Australia and by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s declaration that the 21st century will be “America’s Pacific century.”
“If the United States sticks to its Cold War mentality and continues to engage with Asian nations in a self-assertive way, it is doomed to incur repulsion in the region,” Xinhua added.
“The hard fact is that the Pacific Ocean belongs to all countries sharing its shores, not just the United States,” it said.
China’s People’s Liberation Army, the largest armed force in the world, is primarily a land force, but its navy is playing an increasingly important role as Beijing grows more assertive about its territorial claims.
