“China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side”, she said, referring to the Spratly’s by their Chinese name.
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Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said the airfield had been “built illegally” on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago in territory that was “part of Vietnam’s Spratlys”, reports the Dawn.
The spokeswoman also said a civil aircraft was used to conduct the test, and that China hoped it could continue “sustainable, healthy and stable” ties with Vietnam.
According to CNN, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, announced that the test flight was “entirely within the range of China’s sovereignty concerns”, implying that Beijing considers Fiery Cross Reef as their own.
China has asserted its claim to nearly all of the South China Sea by rapidly building artificial islands including airstrips said to be capable of hosting military jets.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it will lodge formal protest at a flight test on the newly completed runway in the disputed waters.
China landed a civilian plane on one of its controversial man-made islands in the South China Sea over the weekend, a USA defense official told Fox News.
The landing was not a surprise, as China has been building runways on the artificial islands for over a year.
Vietnamese authorities strongly protested against China’s action saying it undermines the sovereignty of countries in the region.
The Chinese foreign ministry quickly rejected a protest note sent to its embassy in Hanoi.
Vietnam also claims the islands, as does Taiwan, while sovereignty over some or all of the islands is also disputed by Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Jose, meanwhile, said Manila is awaiting the final decision of the case the Philippines has filed against China with the arbitral tribunal of the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea. The two communist-led states’ competing claims in the South China Sea came to a head in 2014 when Beijing parked an oil rig off the Vietnamese coast, leading to anti-China riots. China blasted the USA action and warned Washington not to repeat the maneuver.
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Jose added that Beijing’s latest actions raise tensions in the disputed West Philippine Sea or South China Sea.
