China Is Shifting Its Focus From The South China Sea To The Yellow Sea.

Map from Wikipedia

South China Morning Post: What’s China worried about? Clue lies in where it’s holding navy drills

Beijing’s concerns evident in the shift of its focus from South China Sea to the Yellow Sea.

China has shifted the focus of its naval exercises from the South China Sea to the northeastern Yellow Sea amid simmering tensions over the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, military experts said.

“The tension in the South China Sea has eased as Sino-Philippines relations have improved,” said Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based commentator on military affairs.

Despite its victory last year in a tribunal ruling on territorial claims in the disputed waterway, Manila was now more concerned with seeking greater economic cooperation with Beijing, he said.

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WNU Editor: Many reasons for this shift. China has (if reports are to be believed) finished constructing its artificial islands in the South China Sea .... Has China Finished Its Island Building Campaign In The South China Sea? (August 16, 2017). North Korea is a problem .... and will be for the foreseeable future. But the big one has been the U.S. deployment of THAAD in South Korea .... a deployment that China views as a strategic threat.