Seychelles News Agency: Philippines expects to win United Nations South China Sea case

China has become increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, building artificial islands in areas where the Philippines and other countries have rival claims, sparking alarm regionally and in Washington. Satellite pictures provided by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, a watchdog group, showed a main runway, a taxiway and space for parked aircraft.

Images published by AMTI also showed that China had added military facilities to the South Johnson Reef. China has preferred to keep its claims vague, while slowly moving to expand key one-on-one relationships in the region as it literally expands some of the disputed islands with sand dredged from the sea bottom.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily briefing that the land reclamation projects on some islands and reefs in the South China Sea had been completed “in recent days”.

It said a large, multi-level military facility is in the centre of the reef, with two possible radar towers under construction.

The 2015 USA National Military Strategy, outlined at a news conference on Wednesday by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, listed China as a possible threat. Two helipads and up to three satellite communications antennas were also visible.

“Apart from satisfying the need of necessary military defense, the main objective of China’s construction activities is to meet various civilian demands and… better perform China’s worldwide obligations and responsibilities”, Hua added.

She anticipated a short-term lull in construction as summer is typhoon season in the South China Sea while China’s President Xi Jinping is due to visit the USA in September and “the Chinese are attaching priority to having a successful summit”. A claim disputed by its Asian neighbors, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam as well as Brunei.

Although AMTI says land reclamation does appear to have finished on five of the seven islands, other images taken between June 5 and 10 – and available on the AMTI Web site – show reclamation work still continuing on two islands, Mischief Reef and Subi Reef.

China on Friday said it opposed the Pentagon’s latest military report and urged the United States to give up what it described as “cold-war attitudes”.

Foreign minister Wang Yi said last week that not following up on China’s territorial assertions in the area would bring shame on its ancestors.

One Chinese worker in Vietnam was killed and a dozen injured in riots targeting Chinese and Taiwanese owned factories, prompting 3,000 Chinese nationals to flee the country.

They told the told the Crawford Australia Leadership Dialogue on Monday that growing misunderstanding or confusion about China’s objectives as the region’s emerging power challenged the idea that common economic interests would overcome traditional historical antipathy.