WASHINGTON-China is using “coercive tactics” and fostering regional tensions as it expands its maritime presence in the South China Sea and elsewhere, but is avoiding triggering an armed conflict, the Pentagon said Friday.
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It seemed to be one anxious Pentagon report released Friday that showed satellite photos exhibiting China’s rapidly growing military outposts on controversial islands in the South China Sea.
Additionally, China has excavated channels, created and dredged harbors, and constructed communications, logistics and intelligence gathering facilities.
China recently had a military aircraft landing and taking off from a runway on an artificial island it built through land reclamation of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
Fu Mengzi, vice-president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said both countries agree on the need to maintain stability in the South China Sea, and neither wants conflict.
The Chinese Defence Ministry yesterday “expressed strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the report, according to a statement issued by ministry spokesman Yang Yujun.
‘The information targeted could potentially be used to benefit China’s defense industry, high-technology industries, and provide the CCP insights into US leadership perspectives on key China issues, ‘ the report added.
The United States insists China’s claims have no basis under worldwide law, and the U.S. military has conducted several “freedom of navigation” operations, where ships and planes pass close to the sites claimed by China. “China’s deepening military reforms and its strengthening of weapons and equipment building are aimed at maintaining sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and guaranteeing China’s peaceful development”. Washington has accused Beijing of militarizing the South China Sea while Beijing, in turn, has criticized increased US naval patrols and exercises in Asia.
China claims more than 80 percent of the South China Sea.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island.
Several other nations, including Vietnam and the Philippines, have competing sovereignty claims in the region.
On Tuesday, China scrambled fighter jets as a U.S. navy guided missile destroyer sailed close to the Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago.
In the long term, it said, Chinese leaders such as President Xi Jinping are focused on developing the capabilities they deem necessary to deter or defeat enemies and counter third-party intervention – including from the USA – during a crisis or conflict.
Beijing has been angered by the growing US attention on Asia and USA forays into the Sea, including sailing warships close to reclaimed islands.
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The U.S. -China Economic and Security Review Commission said this week that China’s DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile – dubbed by analysts the “Guam killer” and unveiled at a military parade in Beijing last September – allows China to bring unprecedented firepower to bear on the U.S. territory of Guam. As with the October 2015 and January 2016 FONOPs, China’s reactions to the U.S. Navy’s actions were predictably sour.
