“China has held many drills very close to Hainan, where there are not any territorial or maritime disputes because it is so close to undisputed Chinese territory and longstanding Chinese military bases”, she said.
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The live-fire drills that began August 1 follow China’s strident rejection of an worldwide arbitration panel’s ruling last month that invalidated Beijing’s claims to a vast swath of the South China Sea.
The Chinese defense minister has warned the tense situation in the South China Sea poses the threat of a direct confrontation and has called on the military, police and general population to be ready to defend the country’s territorial integrity. This year’s 484-page report allocated several more pages to each country than the previous one.
“It appears that China is establishing the legal basis to enforce violations of Chinese domestic law in the South China Sea”, Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider. Those reclamations have drawn criticism from the Spratly Islands’ rival claimants and from the United States, although Washington has said it is neutral on the competing maritime claims and wants them to be resolved peacefully.
China recently has been touting what it sees as Russian support for its South China Sea stance.
The ruling prompted outrage among Chinese politicians and state-run media.
The question of who has the right to fish in the disputed South China Sea has been a major bone of contention between Beijing and Manila, which brought the case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
Moscow also faces pressure to stay on good terms with Beijing as the two sides deepen their security cooperation, which included joint drills in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Sea of Japan in 2015.
On the East China Sea issue, Wu said the Diaoyu Islands are part of China. Shi added that this is an opportunity for China “to set the record straight”.
Site managers have included photos provided by Chinese South China Sea enthusiasts or acquired by various research groups. “For us, our priority is our fishermen”, he said.
The statement reiterated China’s claim to disputed East China Sea islands controlled by Japan and said it was Japan that altered the status-quo by purchasing the chain from its private owners in 2012.
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China’s navy has fired dozens of missiles and torpedoes during exercises in the East China Sea that come amid heightened maritime tensions in the region, underscoring Beijing’s determination to back up its sovereignty claims with force if needed.
