China claims sovereignty over the Spratly Islands and a 12 nautical mile zone surrounding them. Earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei stated that Beijing has the right to establish military objects in the region. Beijing has announced the islands will be used for military purposes.
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China is Australia’s biggest trading partner.
The dispute in the South China Sea is over the sovereignty of ocean areas, and the Paracels and the Spratlys – two island chains claimed in whole or in part by a number of countries.
New details surfaced last week outlining Chinese military activities in the South China Sea where construction on several thousand acres of disputed islands is now the center of Beijing’s bid to gain control the strategic waterway.
“The best sign of respecting the freedom of the seas is not to de facto recognize a 12-mile limit”, McCain added, urging USA forces to sail right up to the disputed islands. “However, some in Washington, still operating under a Cold War mentality, see the issue as an opportunity to contain China and hinder China’s development”.
Hong said the situation in the South China Sea was generally stable, and Beijing was having bilateral talks with nations concerned to resolve the disputes, as well as working with Asean nations to safeguard peace and stability in the area. Obama and Xi Jinping then pointed at main aspects of such relations at the end of 2014.
It was reported that the airfield has a 9,842-foot long military-grade runway similar to two previous runways, which Beijing had built on the disputed islands earlier. That would be the third airfield China has built on artificial islands in just the past year. Chinese capabilities overall still lag far behind the American military, and likely will for years to come, but the advances they have made so far already give China the ability to punch above its weight in its own backyard. The island has a military garrison and was given authority over 1.2 million square miles of the sea, including all the disputed islands.
However, it’s not China who heats up the tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Sputnik’s analyst Finian Cunningham.
In reality, though, the USA military has not sailed its ships or flown its planes quite everywhere.
Since 2011, under its “pivot to Asia” policy, the Obama administration has significantly stepped up its military presence in the region thanks to the help of its allies – Australia, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. Since China began modernizing its military, about the same time as the USA show of force over Taiwan, Beijing has made huge strides in both the quantity and quality of its hardware.
“The South China Sea is no more China’s than the Gulf of Mexico is Mexico’s”, responded Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command. Over the centuries, similar “protection” claims have been a convenient excuse for “sundry colonial suzerains” as well as “organized crime syndicates”, according to the analyst.
The sea is also a major shipping route and home to fishing grounds that supply the livelihoods of people across the region. An estimated $5.3 trillion worth of goods transit through the waters each year.
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But despite a chorus of public and private protests from Washington, Manila, and other regional capitals, China has only increased the pace of its reclamation and construction activities over the past year. It is paramount that President Obama deal strongly with China.
