China has placed fighter jets on the same South China Sea island where anti-aircraft batteries were spotted last week, a USA news report said Wednesday.
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After the deployment of fighter jets to Woody Island, officials are concerned the Chinese might send them south to the Spratly islands next.
China has accused the USA of “double standards” on the issue of militarisation of the South China Sea. In November, Chinese state media published images showing J-11 fighter jets on the island.
Last week, Wang said that the deployment of missiles to Woody island was for “defensive purposes”.
The South China Sea dispute was clearly a hot topic on Capitol Hill and in the Wang-Kerry discussions.
While China has joined in the worldwide criticism, it has balked at imposing the kind of tough economic sanctions that the USA wants, fearing it could threaten the stability of North Korea, a neighbor and traditional ally of Beijing.
Kerry said, however, not only China but Vietnam and others were also responsible for creating an “escalatory cycle” of reclamation and militarization in the disputed waters.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday that the USA would continue to press China to stop its militarization in the South China China.
The comments were made ahead of a meeting on North Korea’s missile tests between Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi in Washington.
The South China Sea has become a flashpoint as China and countries in the region seek control of trade routes and under-sea mineral deposits. The report comes a day before a visit to the United States by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, at which US concerns about China’s assertive territorial claims will be high on the agenda. China’s Foreign Ministry also urged the U.S. to stop sowing dissension among countries around the South China Sea.
Just a week after it was revealed that China had deployed surface-to-air missiles to one of the disputed islands it claims in the South China Sea, warplanes have been seen flying to the same island. “There is no difference between China’s deployment of necessary national defense facilities on its own territory and the defense installation by the U.S.in Hawaii”, Hua said.
Kerry said a draft was being evaluated in both Washington and Beijing, and if approved it would go beyond previous resolutions against North Korea over its nuclear and missile programmes.
Wang countered by saying China has “historic” claims in the sea and criticizing actions by the Philippines, which China says has broken earlier accords over the area.
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.
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Hua reiterated charges that worldwide media were paying too little attention to China’s construction of lighthouses, weather stations, fishermen’s shelters and other civilian infrastructure that Beijing portrays as public goods and services for the benefit of the global community.
