The top diplomats of the US and China say they are hopeful of reaching agreement soon on a United Nations resolution to punish North Korea after its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.
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The commander of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said Monday that he is wary of the situation in the South China Sea being painted as a battle between the United States and China, but added the presence of a Chinese missile system on a disputed island will not stop the U.S. military from flying over the region.
China is “changing the operational landscape” in the South China Sea by deploying missiles and radar as part of an effort to militarily dominate East Asia, a senior US military official said on Tuesday.
Once again, this news likely does not bode well for already rising tensions in the region where Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia all hold competing claims to a vast area that China claims as its own, dating back to ancient times.
Images of other small reefs nearby which China has transformed into artificial islands ─ Gaven, Hughes, and Johnson South ─ revealed other features identified by CSIS as possible radar towers, gun emplacements, bunkers, helipads, and quays.
According to the CSIS report, the Chinese regime’s radar facilities in the Spratlys and construction of “new runways and air defense capabilities” on other islands suggest a “long-term anti-access strategy by China-one that would see it establish effective control over the sea and airspace throughout the South China Sea”.
Secretary of State John Kerry said after meeting Foreign Minister Wang that steps by China, Vietnam and others have created an escalatory cycle. Unnamed US officials also said commercial satellite imagery showed missile batteries deployed on the disputed islands.
“Every day”, Mr. Wang said, “advanced armaments and equipment [are] emerging in the South China Sea, including the strategic bombers, the missile destroyers”. “There is no question that if the resolution is approved, it will go beyond anything previously passed”.
Kerry, in a news conference with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, said that the State and Defense departments were “on the same page” but that the Pentagon’s job was to “address what happens if…”
But they appear leagues apart on the South China Sea.
“At the same time, we insist that the issue should be solved peacefully through dialogue and consultations”, Wang said.
Woody Island is the biggest island in the Paracel chain in the South China Sea.
On Friday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hong Lei said the USA should get its history and basic facts on the South China Sea straight, before making any remarks.
Any new deployment to Woody Island could spell trouble for USA surveillance aircraft, such as the P-8 Poseidon, which fly through the area regularly.
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Gregory Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative wrote China’s land reclamation on a reef in the Spratly Islands has added another 52 acres for Beijing’s use, Bloomberg reported.
