The imagery released by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) showed hangars on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly Islands, known as Nansha in China, which claims most of the South China Sea. Increased Chinese activities in the region have angered Tokyo.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, former Philippine President Fidel Ramos said in Hong Kong on August 9 that he wants to focus on points of common interest with China like tourism and commercial fishing.
China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually.
The images have emerged about a month after an worldwide court in The Hague ruled against China’s sweeping claims in the resource-rich region – a ruling emphatically rejected by Beijing.
Despite Beijing’s rejection of the ruling, Swift said all sides to the dispute have expressed willingness to settle the row peacefully as Manila’s special envoy for the South China Sea negotiations, former Philippine president Fidel Ramos, is now in Hong Kong preparing the groundwork for Sino-Philippine talks.
Since then, Beijing has launched air patrols over the South China Sea, said it would consider declaring an air defense zone and vowed to continue work on man-made islands created from piling sand atop coral reefs in the highly contested Spratly group.
“They are far thicker than you would build for any civilian objective”, Gregory Poling, director of CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told the New York Times, which first reported on the new images. “They are reinforced to take a strike”. Not only would this escalate disputes with other regional claimant states like Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines, but it would unquestionably pose a serious threat to America’s “freedom of navigation” operations.
The court also ruled that China’s construction and occupation on Mischief Reef are illegal.
“They are militarizing the area, bakit sila gumagawa ng (why are they constructing) hangars for what…” The evidence provided by the CSIS seems to suggest that China’s intentions have changed.
“As such, Beijing will be able to better protect its submarine base at Hainan, and gain a strategic edge in the event of a major crisis in the South China Sea or around the Taiwan Straits”. And of course, if there is any development, they will inform the consulate here in Hong Kong. “The US has concerns”.
Ties around the region have been strained in the lead-up to and since The Hague ruling.
Advertisement
Chen Qinghong, a researcher of Southeast Asian and Philippine studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that Ramos’ remarks send a positive signal and provide an opportunity for the two countries to rebuild political trust and amend their relationship.
