(30 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beijing – 30 July 2025
1. Wide of press conference
2. Wide of reporters
3. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Zhang Xiaogang, Spokesperson of Ministry of National Defence:
“This is an arrangement within the annual cooperation plan between Chinese and Russian military. It is not targeted at any third party, nor is it connected to any of the current international and regional situation.”
4. Close of camera operator
5. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Zhang Xiaogang, Spokesperson of Ministry of National Defence:
“The Pacific should be an ocean of peace, not a place to stir storms. Holding on to its cold war mentality, the U.S. has been blindly flexing muscles in the Asia-Pacific region and attempting to use military drills as a pretext to gang up, intimidate and pressure other countries, and undermine peace and stability in the region.”
6. Various of conference
STORYLINE:
The Chinese military announced Wednesday that it would hold an annual naval exercise and conduct a maritime joint patrol with Russian forces next month.
Defence Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said that the Joint Sea 2025 exercise would be held in the air and seas near the Russian port city of Vladivostok, which lies across the sea from Japan’s west coast.
Zhang told a press conference in Beijing that the exercise "is not targeted at any third party, nor is it connected to any of the current international and regional situation.”
He insisted that “the Pacific should be an ocean of peace, not a place to stir storms."
He also accused the U.S. of "holding on to its cold war mentality," and "blindly flexing muscles in the Asia-Pacific region," using military drills "as a pretext to gang up, intimidate and pressure other countries, and undermine peace and stability in the region.”
The Chinese and Russian governments have deepened their ties in recent years, with China providing an economic lifeline to Russia in the face of Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
European leaders asked China again last week to use its influence to pressure Russia to end the war, now in its fourth year, but there was no sign that Beijing would do so.
Japan’s Defence Ministry said in an annual report earlier this month that China’s growing military cooperation with Russia poses serious security concerns.
Zhang didn’t provide specific dates for the drill or the joint patrol in the Pacific, which he said would be the sixth of its kind.
AP video by Borg Wong
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