He said China was building military capabilities in the South China Sea leading to escalating tension in the region. They accuse China of illegally reclaiming land in contested areas to create artificial islands with facilities that could potentially be for military use.
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull remains circumspect on the prospect of Australia conducting freedom-of-navigation exercises in the disputed South China Sea.
The comments came as Foreign Minister Wang Yi met US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington to discuss issues including the South China Sea. “We’ll be doing them more and we’ll be doing them with greater complexity in the future”, Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, told American lawmakers on the growing friction in the South China Sea.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no specific information about the CSIS report, but said China had undisputed sovereignty over the area.
“All states should avoid unilateral action in South China that will lead to tensions in the region”, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said when asked about Chinese military buildup in the disputed South China Sea.
“We’ll fly, sail and operate wherever worldwide law allows”, Harris, who is set to visit India next week, said. Harris, in his Congressional testimony, had said it was “preposterous” that China would try to “wedge itself” between South Korea and the USA over the issue.
In an editorial yesterday, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said divisions over Korea and the South China Sea had been “amplified thanks partly to Washington’s hidden agendas and recklessness”.
“It’s important to notice that in recent decades some countries have illegally occupied China’s reefs and atolls and have engaged in large-scale military constructions not only of radars, but also of missiles and all kinds of cannons and artilleries”, Wang said.
Since October, the Navy has carried out two such freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, saying the missions are an important way of upholding worldwide law.
The news erupted just after the release of previous satellite images confirming Beijing’s installation of surface-to-air missiles on Paracel Islands just north of Spratlys.
These include territorial disputes in the East China and South China seas and respective airspaces, along with global rules dealing with space and the cyber sphere.
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The sailings involve a USA warship coming within 12 nautical miles of islets claimed by China as a way of rebutting Beijing’s assertions of sovereignty.
