South China Sea dispute: China rejects Vietnam protest over flight test

The runway is at the Chinese-administered Fiery Cross Reef, where Beijing has built an artificial island in the middle of the South China Sea.

Yet China’s foreign ministry said Saturday that it finished building an airport in the reef.

Han Feng, deputy head of the National Institute of International Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China had refrained from carrying out major construction work on the islands.

The same day, a representative from the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry presented a diplomatic note to Chinese embassy counterpart opposing China’s action.

The Philippines has adopted the name West Philippine Sea for parts of the waters that fall under its exclusive economic zone as allowed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

China has defended its action, claiming the flight test was carried to ensure that the reef it now occupies and transformed into an artificial island with a runway, adheres to safety aviation standards.

“We are concerned that these test flights have exacerbated tensions and are inconsistent with the region’s commitments to exercise restraint from actions that could complicate or escalate disputes”, said Pooja Jhunjhunwala, a State Department spokeswoman.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei, and Malaysia all contest parts of the South China Sea that China has claimed as its own; Vietnam and the Philippines both claim parts of the Spratly Islands.

China has sought to consolidate its claim to sovereignty in the area by building up partially submerged reefs and shoals into islands that can support its growing military presence in the South China Sea.

China’s first aircraft carrier, which was renovated from an old aircraft carrier that China bought from Ukraine in 1998, is seen docked at Dalian Port, in Dalian, Liaoning province September 22, 2012. Among its claims is to have the tribunal declare that the Fiery Cross Reef is at most a reef entitled to a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea. “In this way, China can appease the USA too”, he wrote. This latest spat between Vietnam and China comes almost two months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Hanoi in November 2015, attempting to reset ties between the two neighbors.

Moreover, by encouraging other claimants in the South China Sea, such as Vietnam and the Philippines, to take a more aggressive stance, the USA is unleashing forces over which it has no control.