By Shannon Tiezzi
The PLA is holding live fire exercises off China’s southeastern and southern coasts.
China Military Online reports that the People’s Liberation Army will carry out live-fire drills in the East China Sea from July 29 to August 2. In preparation for the drills, the Chinese government issued a navigation notice banning maritime vessels from entering an area of the East China Sea bordering southeastern Zhejiang province, roughly 200 kilometers north of the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. AXinhua report reposted by China’s Ministry of Defense described the exercises as “routine training.”
Meanwhile, China is also holding military drills in the south. Bloomberg reports that China is “holding live-fire drills” in the Gulf of Tonkin. Though the drills are reportedly part of an annual exercise, the scope of this year’s exercises is larger than previous versions. Ni Lexiong, a defense researcher at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, told South China Morning Post that such large drills in China’s eastern coastal region were uncommon, and likely intended as a warning to Japan.
Read the full story at The Diplomat