BEIJING: China's
navy will on Tuesday begin annual military exercises off its east coast, state
media reported, amid tensions over maritime territorial disputes with its
neighbours.
"According to our annual plan for
exercises, the Chinese People's Liberation Army's navy will in the coming days
hold exercise activities in the waters near the Zhoushan islands," the
ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The ministry provided no other details on the
war games.
But the China Daily said the live fire naval
exercises would start on Tuesday and last for six days.
The Zhoushan islands lie in the East China
Sea not far from the coastal city of Shanghai. The China Daily said the
exercises would not be held in any waters also claimed by another country.
Last week, the ministry announced a ban on
shipping and fishing vessels entering the designated exercise area, the paper
said.
The exercises come after Japanese Prime
Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Saturday that Japan was considering buying a chain
of islands at the centre of its bitter territorial dispute with China and
Taiwan.
Those islands in the East China Sea are
called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, and are further to the east
than the area where the imminent naval exercises are being planned.
China reacted angrily to Noda's remarks, as
both governments reiterated their claims over the islands.
China is locked in similarly tense disputes
with Vietnam and the Philippines in the neighbouring South China Sea.
Vietnam and the Philippines have accused
China of increasingly aggressive behaviour in the area.
China claims essentially all of the South
China Sea, home to vital shipping lanes and believed to be rich in oil and gas
deposits. Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia also have claims in the waters.
- AFP/ir
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