China to stage 4-day naval drill in September

Chinese Naval Fleet will hold live-ammunition naval exercise in the Yellow Sea in the beginning of September, the Chinese Defense Ministry announced on Sunday in a statement.

The drill will be staged this week from September 1 to September 4 in the sea between China and the Korean peninsula and will come ahead of a parallel U.S.-South Korean joint naval exercise.

"The oncoming scheduled rehearsal will be held in accordance with the annual plan in a region, where exercises of the People's Liberation Army [of China] are traditional," the statement said.

The exercise is aimed at training naval artillery's skills, the ministry's statement said.

The Chinese military exercise will be held off the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao, Beijing said. This way, the drill will be well away from the U.S.-South Korean naval exercise, which will be staged off the west coast of the Korean peninsula.