China building reinforced aircraft hangars on disputed islands in South China Sea

On Tuesday, Japan’s coast guard was reported as saying that at one point it had spotted 13 Chinese government vessels in the contiguous zone just beyond Japanese waters around the Senkakus, while on Monday, 15 such vessels were reported to have sailed in the zone.

China is now building hangars hardened against bomb attacks for its military aircraft at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the South China Sea as can be seen in new satellite photos made public by an American think tank based in Washington D.C.

“Except for a brief visit by a military transport plane to Fiery Cross Reef earlier this year, there is no evidence that Beijing has deployed military aircraft to these outposts”, the report said.

Judging by the rapid construction of reinforced hangars at all three facilities, CSIS say this is likely to change.

Swift’s visit comes a day after the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG-65) made the first Chinese port visit by a US ship after an worldwide tribunal ruled invalid many South China Sea claims made by China and a few weeks after Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson visited his counterpart in Beijing. The islands and reefs are also claimed by Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan.

Adding to regional tensions are China’s criticisms of Japan’s new Defense Minister, Tomomi Inada, for allegedly refusing to admit Japan massacred Chinese civilians during World War II; South Korea’s alarm over recent missile launches by China’s feral client North Korea; and China’s objection to the installation of American anti-missile systems in South Korea to protect against North Korean threats.

However, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China has irrefutable claim over the island and the water there.

The ruling also declared that China’s construction work on Mischief Reef had violated the Philippines’ sovereignty rights. All the hangars show signs of structural strengthening that might make them harder to destroy.

In an interview with the New York Times which first revealed the images, director of CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative Gregory Poling said that the hangars “are far thicker than you would build for any civilian objective”.

“I think it’s a mistake to take them individually and not look at them as a collective”.

While China may assert that the structures are for civilian aircraft or other nonmilitary functions, the center says its satellite photos strongly suggest otherwise.

Ramos said he will wait in Hong Kong for coordination between the Philippine Embassy and China’s Foreign Ministry on when he will go to Beijing.

Other reports of harassment appear to show China’s determination to monopolize marine archaeology in the South China Sea, which is littered with the wrecks of ships of all nationalities.

China recently built three operational runways on the Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi Reefs in the disputed Spratly Islands, a part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.