Fox News: China sends missiles to contested South China Sea island

The images, from ImageSat International, show two batteries of eight surface-to-air missile launchers as well as a radar system on Woody Island, part of the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea, according to Fox News.

An American defence official confirmed that the missiles had been deployed.

Moving missiles into the area dramatically escalates the tensions.

The United States believes that China’s island-building could threaten navigation within the disputed area, as one of the busiest trade routes in the world passes through the South China Sea. According to the images, a beach on the island was empty on February 3, but the missiles were visible by February 14.

News of the missile deployment in the Paracels, which has been the scene of boat ramming and other confrontations between China and Vietnam, comes after Obama wrapped up a summit with Southeast Asian leaders Tuesday in California.

“And we can not accept the allegation that China’s words are not being matched by actions”, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

Ms Bishop said before the trip that she meant to question China about its activities in the South China Sea.

Before visiting China, Bishop said in Tokyo that Australia supported the Philippines’ tribunal efforts and she will ask for clarification from Beijing about its intentions on the islands.

The missiles have been secretly arriving on Woody Island, one of the islands in the chain, in February. Although a US State Department official has claimed that the imminent summit is “not anti-China”, China will inevitably be an important topic in the discussion.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung urged Tuesday for greater USA involvement in the long-running controversy over sovereignty in the South China Sea, Reuters reported.

Vietnam also claims the Spratlys and the Paracels as sovereign territory, extending Vietnam’s EEZ across much of the region and bringing it into direct conflict with China.

The US has said it will continue conducting “freedom of navigation patrols” by ships and aircraft to assure unimpeded passage through the region.

Other US surveillance and transport planes routinely fly throughout the South China Sea.

The system is capable of threatening carrier-based planes coming to the assistance of any US Navy warship confronted by China during freedom of navigation exercises, he said.

Specifically, a country can claim exclusive rights to resources within a so-called Exclusive Economic Zone, extending 200 nautical miles from a continental shore line or around islands.

At the heart of these disputes are a series of barren islands in two groups – the Spratly Islands, off the coast of the Philippines, and the Paracel Islands, off the coasts of Vietnam and China.

“Woody Island belongs to China”, said Ni Lexiong, a naval expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.

China claims nearly the entire South China Sea with its nine-dash-line policy as its only basis.

But China has been insisting that UNCLOS does not have the mandate to deal with territorial dispute.