The New York Times reports that tensions between China, the United States, and the Koreas, including the dispute over the sinking of the South Korean ship the Cheonan, have not yet been resolved:
Three days after President Obama emerged from a tense meeting with President Hu Jintao of China, and accused Beijing of “willful blindness” toward North Korea’s military provocations, the Chinese government on Tuesday continued the argument about how to handle its testy neighbor.
In a regularly scheduled news conference, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry dismissed American calls for a tough line against North Korea, most recently for the sinking of a South Korean naval ship.
The spokesman, Qin Gang, suggested that Mr. Obama had overreached when he accused Beijing of “turning a blind eye” to what an international investigation concluded was a North Korean torpedo attack in March on the ship.
Meanwhile, Beijing is denying reports that military exercises in the East China Sea are aimed at the U.S. From Reuters:
The 6-day, live ammunition exercise starting on Wednesday in the East China Sea off China’s coast was seen by some analysts as a “response to a (planned) joint exercise between the United States and Republic of Korea navies in the Yellow Sea,” said the China Daily, the country’s official English-language newspaper.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said there was no such link and a Chinese military officer said the timing was coincidental.
“This is a regular military exercise,” the spokesman Qin told a regular news conference. “This is not related to the situation on the Korean Peninsula.”
