China cautions Japan against any response in disputed waters

CSIS said that apart from a brief visit to Fiery Cross reef by a military transport plane earlier in the year, “there is no evidence that Beijing has deployed military aircraft to these outposts”.

Philippine-Chinese ties have frayed in recent years due to growing tensions over Beijing’s claims to nearly all the South China Sea. China claims almost all of the strategically vital South China Sea which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The images came out almost a month after an worldwide court in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines’ maritime case against China’s massive claims in the contested South China Sea, saying it had no legal basis.

Ties around the region have been strained in the lead-up to and since The Hague ruling.

Ex-Philippine president Fidel Ramos left for Hong Kong on Monday to “rekindle” ties with Beijing that have soured over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

Ramos gave no details of his itinerary or of those he planned to meet, except for Wu Shicun, who heads the National Institute for South China Sea Studies think-tank, based on China’s southern island of Hainan. It renewed its commitment to defend its sovereignty claims and continue work on man-made islands in the Spratly island group that have been heavily criticized by the USA and others as adding to regional tensions.

China has ignored the court’s ruling that none of its reefs and holdings in the Spratly Islands entitled it to a 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

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

While China may argue that these structures are for civilian use, “they are far thicker than you would build for any civilian goal”, CSIS Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative Director Gregory Poling told The New York Times.

The United States, its Southeast Asian allies and Japan have questioned Chinese land reclamation on contested islands in the South China Sea, particularly since an global court rejected China’s historic claims to most of that sea last month. It was also the first time an American navy ship docked at the same port and held joint naval drills, the New York Times reported.

Kishida told Cheng that Chinese vessels’ repeated entry into Japanese territorial waters is totally unacceptable, as it violates Japan’s sovereignty and escalates tensions, the ministry said.

Such judgments were made more hard by a lack of transparency about intentions, he said, repeating a frequent USA criticism of China’s secretive military.

Meanwhile, Japan’s foreign minister summoned China’s ambassador Tuesday and lodged a protest over the increased number of Chinese vessels in waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

The South Koreans have urged China to exercise more control over the Kim regime in North Korea.