Chinese Shenyang J-11 and Xian JH-7 fighter jets have been seen by USA intelligence on Woody Island in the past few days, Fox News said.
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“We have made significant progress”, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told a joint press conference following talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who hinted that the Security Council could reach an agreement soon on a fresh resolution against North Korea.
Australia and other countries should follow the US lead and conduct “freedom-of-navigation” naval operations within 12 nautical miles of contested islands in the South China Sea, a senior American naval officer said.
China claims much of the South China Sea, but other countries in the region also have claims to the disputed waters.
The imagery shows radar installations on China’s artificial islands in the Spratley Island chain of reefs-Gaven, Hughes, Johnson South, and primarily on Cuarteron reefs-the outhermost island in the South China Sea.
Beijing has called on the U.S.to stop what the Pentagon calls freedom of navigation missions.
Ahead of Wang’s visit to Washington, a spokeswoman likened China’s military buildup on Woody Island to the U.S. Navy’s in Hawaii.
“Most people in this area recognize that the facilities that China has constructed are primarily for strategic reasons”.
Over the past week or so China has been reported to have deployed advanced missiles, fighters and radar equipment on islands in the South China Sea, especially on Woody Island in the Paracels. Wang said a resolution could be passed in the “near future”.
It is “clearly militarizing” the disputed waters, Reuters reports, citing Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command.
China has claimed THAAD can be used against it, despite repeated assurances from Washington that the system is aimed only at deterring North Korean threats.
China has occupied Woody Island for 50 years.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, the latest satellite images appear to show that China has built a high-frequency radar centre on Cuarteron Reef, more than 1000 kilometres south of China’s southernmost province.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei told reporters last week that the “deployment of defense facilities in our own territory is appropriate and reasonable”.
“It looks like China isn’t leaving anything for the imagination by transforming every land feature under its control into an integral part of a broader military complex in the South China Sea”, Assistant Professor Richard Javad Heydarian of De La Salle University in Manila told The Straits Times.
“The fact is there have been steps by China, by Vietnam, by others that have unfortunately created an escalatory cycle”, Kerry added.
Taiwan President-elect Tsai Ing-wen responded to the news by calling on “all parties to exercise self-control based on the principle of peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea”, according to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency.
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At least four Asean members – Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia – have unresolved territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea particularly over the Spratly island group which experts confirmed to be rich not only in fisheries but also in mineral resources like petroleum and natural gas.
