Beijing claimed that, with the aim of transporting construction workers who had suddenly been taken ill on the island, it had dispatched a maritime patrol aircraft on missions over the South China Sea.
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The U.S report renewed accusations against China’s government and military for cyber attacks against USA government computer systems, a charge Beijing denies.
Yang stressed China’s construction on the Nansha Islands serves mostly civilian purposes, and helps fulfil its worldwide responsibilities and obligations by providing more public goods.
Framing itself as reacting to threats to its national sovereignty or to outside provocations, China has deployed the coast guard to monitor its claims by maintaining a “near-continuous presence” in disputed areas such as the Senkakus, the report noted. It said attacks in 2015 appeared focused on intelligence collection.
China is undertaking a diplomatic and public-relations blitz to rally support for its sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea before a decision by an worldwide court that may rule against Beijing.
China expressed its “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to the Pentagon report, Yang said.
That work includes building communication and surveillance systems and logistical support facilities, the report said. “Moves such as deepening military reforms and the military buildup are aimed at maintaining sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, and guaranteeing China’s peaceful development”, Yang said.
The report to Congress reveals that China has added over 3,200 acres to the seven sites it occupies in the South China Sea during the last two years.
The U.S. says it takes no side in the territorial disputes, but supports freedom of passage through the area, which is one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
In a video conference, China’s chief of the general staff, Fang Fenghui, told chairman of the United States joint chiefs of staff, Joseph Dunford on Thursday that China values freedom of navigation “more than any other country in the world”.
“Additionally”, he said, “General Dunford expressed appreciation for recent progress in military-to-military exchanges and conveyed that although differences exist between the US and China, keeping open lines of communication was essential to managing those differences”.
The report pointed to China’s November announcement that it was establishing a military facility in Djibouti.
“If it does, China would develop a “triad” of nuclear delivery systems dispersed across land, sea and air – a posture considered since the Cold War to improve survivability and strategic deterrence”, according to the report.
Fang said China was not to blame for tensions with the United States in the South China Sea and urged the two sides “to bear the overall situation in mind and manage their differences in a constructive way”, Xinhua reported early on Friday.
According to Friday’s assessment, “this platform represents China’s first credible, sea-based nuclear deterrent”.
When asked to describe China’s “coercive tactics”, Abraham Denmark, the deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia, told reporters that Chinese coastguard and fishing vessels sometimes acted in an “unprofessional” manner.
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Capable of hitting targets 3,400 miles away, China’s “Guam killer” missile is raising new fears of a growing Chinese threat to major USA military installations and stability in the Pacific Rim.
