15. What strength does carrier USS George Washington want to show?

What strength does carrier USS George Washington want to show?

By Zhong Sheng (People's Daily Online)

2010-08-10

Pentagon reportedly said Thursday, August 5, that the US aircraft carrier USS George Washington would participate in a series of the United States-Republic of Korea (ROK) joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea. This series of US-ROK military exercises include anti-submarine maritime interdiction operations, bombing and special armed forces' operations for a "show of strength".

"We have repeatedly expressed our clear and firm stance on the ROK-US military drills to the relevant parties," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu made the remarks after Pentagon said Thursday.

China is in the resolute opposition to the use of the Yellow Sea and other coastal waters by foreign military vessels and planes to affect or jeopardize the country's security interests.

With regard to the US-.China relations, former US ambassador to China James Ralph Sasser underscored that it is extremely important to deal with each other on an equal footing, and he advocated thinking in the perspective of the opposite side.

In case of the mid-air collision on April 1, 2001, in which a US spy planed bumped into and destroyed a Chinese fighter jet while flying over China's exclusive economic zone, the former US ambassador queried. If a Chinese fighter plane had flied over the sea area of California, how would Americans think of it?

When discussing if the US aircraft carrier should participate in the naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, an American netizen acknowledged that if Chinese navy holds a military exercise in the area of the Atlantic not distant from the US coast, he was sure that the US government would also voice its objection to it.

In human history, security interests of the nations have never been so closely-interwoven as they are today. Owing to a constant expansion of the security connotation, traditional security threats and non-traditional security threats are inter-related to be involved in politics, military, economy, culture and other spheres and pose common challenges faced by all countries, and so there is a need to joint response with the efficient, effective use of comprehensive means.

Security is neither isolated and absolute, nor a zero-sum game. There will be no security and stability to speak of for a region if without world peace and regional stability. A new security concept with mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination at the core is the demand of our era and the inevitability of history.

In his farewell President address, the founding father and First US President George Washington advised Americans to "observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all." With an elapse of more than 200 years, what kind of strength is the aircraft carrier named after this great American statesman to show? So, this is definitely the question the people of his later generation should make clear, and is also an issue that merits careful panderation by all peace-loving people in countries around the world.