China sends missiles to contested South China Sea island

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop used a meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to “urge restraint” in the South China Sea as reports emerged Beijing has positioned surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island.

Fox News said satellite images showed two batteries of eight surface-to-air missiles launchers and a radar system had been detected on Woody Island.

The US has criticised Beijing for building artificial islands in the disputed sea, and has flown a B-52 bomber and sailed a guided-missile destroyer near some of the constructions China has made in recent months.

“The military will pay close attention to subsequent developments”, the Taiwanese ministry statement said.

Tensions in the region have increased after Beijing has carried out huge reclamations work to expand islands in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

China and Taiwan have overlapping claims over the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea, which includes the Paracel group.

Ni Lexiong, a naval expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, defended China’s move.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said the issue “concerns me greatly”.

The island, which was being monitored by ImageSat International (ISI), is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam. Furthermore, Australia supports the right of the Philippines to take its maritime dispute with China to global arbitration.

“Australia welcomes China’s peaceful rise”.

They said: “The United States continues to call on all claimants to halt land reclamation, construction, and militarisation of features in the South China Sea”. Huang said the development sends a contradictory signal because China has repeatedly said that it would not militarize the disputed islands.

The country also said in January it had successfully completed test flights of civilian aircraft to a new airfield on Fiery Cross Reef, drawing protests from countries including Vietnam. During the first operation by the USS Lassen, where it passed within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands chain, it was shadowed and warned by Chinese boats – including nonnaval vessels.

Obama told a news conference that disputes must be resolved by legal means, including a case brought by the Philippines challenging China’s sweeping claims over most of the South China Sea.

Ms Bishop described the two sides’ discussion on the South China Sea as “very forthright and candid”, before adding that “we don’t take sides on competing claims” and “we urge that all parties settle their differences peacefully”.

“Taiwan’s defense ministry also confirmed the missiles deployment”.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei responded by saying Australia should adopt an “objective and unbiased attitude” toward South China Sea matters.

“This reminds us that we must retain a high growth rate of military spending in spite of the economic downward trend”, it said in an editorial.

During a summit of Southeast Asian countries in California on Monday, premier Nguyen Tan Dung suggested to US President Barack Obama that Washington uses a stronger voice and “more practical and more efficient actions”, in comments likely to rile China.