BEIJING, Aug 16 (Reuters) - China lacks the power to block planned U.S. naval exercises near its shores, but those drills risk deepening distrust of Washington and bolstering pressure for a stronger Chinese military, a Chinese admiral said on Monday.
Rear Admiral Yang Yi, a senior researcher at the National Defence University in Beijing, told Reuters that China was also "concerned" about joint exercises this week between thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops.
Those mainly land-based exercises could "inflame" neighbouring North Korea and fuel regional tensions, said Yang.
However, China sees a much more direct threat in Pentagon plans for a new joint naval exercises with ally South Korea that would send a U.S. aircraft carrier into the Yellow Sea, between China and the Korean peninsula, he said..
The Pentagon has not given a date for these exercises, which Yang said would be provocatively close to north China’s political and economic heartland.
"If the United States does enter the Yellow Sea, China can’t possibly use military force to block it. That could risk a military clash, and that would be unwise for China and the United States," Yang said in the telephone interview.
"But if the United States insists on going ahead with this, that will be dropping a stone on its own foot. It will damage long-term relations between China and the U.S.
Yang’s comments, along with a volley of commentaries in China’s main military newspaper, including one written by him, suggest friction over the naval exercises will continue to unsettle ties, while falling short of confrontation at sea.
"How will China’s military strategic planners view this? When the United States prepares to use military might to threaten China’s national interests, what can we do? We must enhance our military strength," Yang said.
PAYING THE PRICE
Yang is not an official spokesman for China’s military, but an influential strategist whose words carry weight. He is former director of the Institute of Strategic Studies at the National Defence University, which trains promising officers.
Friction between Beijing and Washington over Chinese maritime claims and U.S. naval activities has added to irritants between the two countries, which have also sparred this year over Taiwan, Tibet, Internet policy and Chinese exchange rate policy.
The U.S. has recently criticised Chinese claims to swathes of the South China Sea, where Taiwan and several Southeast Asian states also assert sovereignty. China has said the waters and atolls down there are among its "core" national interests.
Last month, the U.S. and South Korea held a naval drill in the Sea of Japan off the Korean peninsula, prompting condemnation from China, which answered with its own heavily publicised military exercises.
The July drill was initially scheduled to take place in the Yellow Sea — closer to China’s shore — but was moved to the other side of the Korean peninsula after objections from Beijing.
The United States and South Korea have said their joint exercises are aimed at warning North Korea, which they blame for torpedoing a South Korean navy ship in March.
"The United States can use its strength to come, because it’s the most powerful military power," said Yang. "But it will have to pay the price for this in the longer term".
