China’s military establishment has reacted angrily to a planned US naval mission to skirt artificial islands Beijing has constructed in the South China Sea, as the US gears up to challenge Chinese claims in the area.
In the latest escalation of rhetoric from China, a senior Chinese naval officer on Thursday warned the US that the PLA would deliver a “head-on blow” to any foreign forces “violating” China’s sovereignty. Writing in the Global Times, a newspaper with close links to the Communist party, Rear Admiral Yang Yi said: “Safeguarding maritime rights calls for force and power.”
A senior US official last week told the Financial Times that the US navy would soon start “freedom of navigation activities” — sailing or flying within 12 nautical miles of the islands to challenge Chinese claims — around the Spratly chain of islands in the South China Sea.
The US has refrained from conducting such operations in the area — through which 30 per cent of global trade passes — since 2012, which was before China significantly ramped up construction activities in the South China Sea.
Admiral John Richardson, the head of the US navy, on Thursday defended the planned operations during his first visit to Asia since assuming command.
“It should not be a surprise to anybody that we would exercise freedom of navigation through wherever international law will allow,” Adm Richardson said in Tokyo. “I don’t see how this can be interpreted as provocative or anything. They are just steaming in international waters . . . we would see these as part of our normal business as a global navy.”
In the past two years, China has dredged about 2,000 acres out of small coral atolls in the South China Sea, created about half a dozen islands — one of which, named Fiery Cross Reef, has a 3,000m runway apparently capable of handling military jets.
The island building appears to be part of China’s strategy to lay claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, a move that has infuriated China’s maritime neighbours and the US. President Barack Obama and Xi Jinping discussed the issue recently when the Chinese president visited Washington. But the two sides appeared to make little progress in resolving the tensions.
Adm Yang’s comments are the most incendiary to have come out of Beijing. But Wu Shicun, director of the Hainan Research Institute of the South China Sea, said the officer was not speaking on behalf of the Chinese government.
“To the public this may sound strongly of gunpowder, and it appeals to nationalistic emotions, but it is highly unlikely that the decision-making levels in either country will allow tensions to elevate to such a level,” he said.
In depth
News and comment on the disputes over islands and territorial waters between an increasingly assertive China and its neighbours
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Further reading
Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said China should take a constructive approach to the South China Sea.
“Reacting in ways that exacerbate tensions would substantially raise the risk of setting off a series of dynamics and security decisions by the US and its allies and partners that China would not see in its interests over the long term,” he said.
Mr Wu played down the risk of armed conflict, saying Beijing would probably react to any US activity by monitoring, intercepting and attempting to drive off foreign vessels or aircraft.
“It is highly likely that the US will enter the airspace and waters in the near future,” he said. “We are waiting for the shoe to drop, so to speak.”
However, Mr Wu warned that continued US challenges could force China to militarise the islands. “China has promised not to militarise the islands, but if the US continues to provoke and create hype over the topic, including using the military bases of the Philippines and Malaysia, and China feels threatened, it may be forced to arm itself through militarisation” he said.
US officials were surprised when Mr Xi said during his visit to Washington that China would not militarise the islands, since most non-Chinese experts have concluded that Beijing has been doing so for several years already.
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