{"id":319562,"date":"2017-07-30T23:38:55","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T22:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/china-closes-east-seas-for-fresh-round-of-large-scale-military-drills\/"},"modified":"2017-07-30T23:38:55","modified_gmt":"2017-07-30T22:38:55","slug":"china-closes-east-seas-for-fresh-round-of-large-scale-military-drills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/china-closes-east-seas-for-fresh-round-of-large-scale-military-drills\/","title":{"rendered":"China closes east seas for fresh round of \u2018large-scale\u2019 military drills"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>      <!-- START CONTENT --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/397813-china-closes-sea-drills\/\"><strong>RT<\/strong><\/a><br \/>July 28, 2017<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shortly after wrapping up the initial stage of the first-ever joint Russia-China drills in European waters, Beijing has reportedly blocked out a swath of ocean off the country\u2019s east coast for a fresh series of \u201clarge-scale\u201d military drills.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cLarge-scale military activities\u201d<\/em>\u00a0are being held between the eastern port city of Lianyungang, in Jiangsu province, and Qingdao, in Shandong province, home to the navy\u2019s North Sea Fleet, AP reported, citing a notice from the government of Lianyungang.<\/p>\n<p>Around 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) of the Yellow Sea will be off-limits for commercial shipping until Saturday, according to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/International\/wireStory\/china-closes-sea-war-games-information-scarce-48899624\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AP<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, the Chinese and Russian navies concluded the first stage of joint military drills in the Baltic Sea, code-named \u2018Joint Sea 2017.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Two tactical assault groups involving warships from both sides \u2013 including the Chinese missile destroyer\u00a0<em>\u2018Hefei\u2019<\/em>\u00a0and missile frigate\u00a0<em>\u2018Yuncheng\u2019<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 carried out a range of drills, from ship-to-sea firing by secondary guns to maritime search and rescue.<\/p>\n<p>The goal was first and foremost to boost the \u201cability to cope with maritime threats and coordinate joint actions,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2017-07\/28\/c_136478539.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Xinhua<\/a>news agency reported.<\/p>\n<p>In early July, Chinese warships led by Beijing\u2019s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, held trans-regional training exercises amid mounting tensions with Washington in the South China Sea. The drills took place after the USS Stethem, a US guided-missile destroyer, sailed near a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/396142-china-naval-drills-mediterranean\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">disputed island<\/a>\u00a0in the area.\u00a0 China sent military vessels and warplanes to \u201c<em>warn off\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the vessel.<!-- [donotprint] --><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ppani\">\n<li>A d v e r t i s e m e n t<\/li>\n<li\/><\/ul>\n<p><!-- [\/donotprint] --><\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, the commander of the US Navy\u2019s Pacific Fleet, Admiral Scott Swift, said he would obey a hypothetical order to launch a nuclear strike against Beijing if President Donald Trump chose to give such an order.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe answer would be: yes,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Swift said when&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.prisonplanet.com\/china-closes-east-seas-for-fresh-round-of-large-scale-military-drills.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RTJuly 28, 2017 Shortly after wrapping up the initial stage of the first-ever joint Russia-China drills in European waters, Beijing has reportedly blocked out a swath of ocean off the country\u2019s east coast for a fresh series of \u201clarge-scale\u201d military drills. \u201cLarge-scale military activities\u201d\u00a0are being held between the eastern port city of Lianyungang, in Jiangsu [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-319562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}