Ms Bishop has been in official talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday in Beijing canvassing bilateral relations, economic ties and strategic issues.
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He said the media should instead focus on Chinese-built lighthouses on the islands ensuring naval safety.
Taiwan’s defence ministry would not say how many missiles had been deployed or when, but told the BBC they would be capable of targeting civilian and military aircraft. China has controlled all of the Paracels, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, since the mid-1970s and the end of the Vietnam War.
“Interested parties should work together to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea region and refrain from taking any unilateral measures that would increase tensions”, Maj. Other nations laying claim to South China Sea islands have earlier made such moves, but on a much smaller scale.
Obama pressed for a “halt to reclamation, new construction and militarization” of Asia’s oceans, an indirect reference to China’s rapid construction in the South China Sea of air strips and ports in the Spratly Islands that could have military uses.
The new bases are also highly vulnerable to US attack in a conflict and the USA will continue to defy Beijing by sailing its Navy ships inside China’s claimed territorial waters, said Edward N. Luttwak, a China expert and military strategist based in the USA state of Maryland. The buildup is seen as part of Beijing’s efforts to claim virtually the entire South China Sea and its resources, which has prompted some of its wary neighbors to draw closer to the U.S.
The island, which was being monitored by ImageSat International (ISI), is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
China claims sovereignty over nearly the whole of the South China Sea.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman told reporters Tuesday at a regularly-scheduled briefing that China’s developments in the South China Sea were peaceful.
China regards Australia and the U.S.as unwelcome outside interlopers in regional waters. The confirmation comes just as President Barack Obama wraps up a landmark summit with Southeast Asian leaders in California where he urged restraint in the region and a halt to the militarization of disputed maritime areas.
The missiles arrived over the past week and, according to a USA official, appeared to show the HQ-9 air defence system, which has a range of 125 miles (200 km) and would pose a threat to any airplanes flying close by, the report said. Woody Island (or Yongxing Island as it is known in Chinese and Phu Lam in Vietnamese) is the largest of the Paracel Islands and is located in the northernmost part of the South China Sea east of the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang.
Some analysts said the missile deployment on Woody Island appears to be a response to the recent US operations, though others believe Beijing had meant to bolster its military presence regardless.
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Asked about Fox report, Bill Urban, a Pentagon spokesman, said: “While I can not comment on matters related to intelligence, we do watch these matters very closely”.
