The CSIS said there is evidence that China has deployed military aircraft in these reefs, except a brief visit by a transport plane at the Fiery Cross Reef.
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Evidence of the military hangars emerged a month after an worldwide tribunal in The Hague ruled that China’s claims over the disputed South China Sea – based on nine-dash-line – were invalid, including its assertion of expansive sovereignty and construction of artificial islands. The islands and reefs are also claimed by Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan.
In July, China rejected an worldwide tribunal ruling that its claims have no rights in the South China Sea, raising tensions with neighbours who have competing claims in the area.
Their confirmed presence in the South China Sea quashes China’s repeated claims it was never planning to militarise the region.
Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos said Tuesday that he wants to focus on points of common interest with China such as tourism and commercial fishing as part of efforts to smooth relations with Beijing roiled by the South China Sea dispute.
China has also recently raised tensions in the South China Sea, where it installed military equipment on artificial islands.
China has refused to recognise the court ruling. “Each of the three islets will soon have hangar space for 24 fighter-jets plus 3-4 larger planes”, CSIS said in its report.
According to CISIS, all hangars show signs of structural strengthening. Aircraft added for illustrative purposes.
The photos in the CSIS report were taken towards the end of July, just weeks after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague discredited China’s nine-dashed line and extensive claims to the South China Sea.
Over the past year, China has sent naval ships and fighter jets into the South China Sea to establish claim over the area’s islands.
Japan warned China yesterday that ties were “deteriorating markedly” over disputed East China Sea islets, and China’s envoy in Tokyo reiterated Beijing’s stance that the specks of land were its territory and called for talks to resolve the row.
The transparency initiative’s director, George B. Poling, told The New York Times the structures were large enough to accommodate China’s fleet.
Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, said that his country would request China not to escalate its activities in the East China Sea.
“I think it’s a mistake to take them individually and not look at them as a collective”.
Former Philippine leader Fidel Ramos said yesterday he would meet contacts with links to Chinese President Xi Jinping during a trip to Hong Kong meant to improve ties between Manila and Beijing.
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Last September, for example, satellite imagery first published in The Diplomat showed the construction of a over-the-horizon radar on Cuarteron Reef.
