Philippines follows Vietnam in opposing Chinese flight test

Hua, however, said that Beijing had “conducted a test flight to the airport with a civil aircraft in order to test whether or not the facilities on it meet the standards for civil aviation”.

China says flight to artificial island in contested part of South China Sea was “completely within its sovereignty”.

Washington expressed concerns at the latest developments saying that China’s flight had aggravated tensions. US officials are encouraging countries with claims in the area to “actively reduce tensions” by refraining from actions that threaten stability, she said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Hanoi in November, at a time of uncertainty over what kind of leader will emerge from this month’s five-yearly congress of the Vietnamese communist party, traditionally close to Beijing but now getting intense Western attention, from the United States in particular.

Vietnam Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said that the test flight violated Vietnam’s sovereignty, breached mutual understanding and hurt the bilateral relations.

Almost 50 young Filipinos returned yesterday from remote Philippine-held Pag-asa island in the South China Sea where they had staged a week-long protest against Beijing’s claims in the disputed waterway.

China claims nearly the whole of the potentially oil and mineral-rich South China Sea, but several other Asian nations have also laid claim. “China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side”, added the spokesperson, referring to the Chinese name. Pooja Jhunjhunwala, a spokeswoman for the U.S. state department, said there was “a pressing need for claimants to publicly commit to a reciprocal halt to further land reclamation, construction of new facilities, and militarisation of disputed features”.

“China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters”.

It also said the artificial island had a Chinese garrison and had a pier, air defense guns, antifrogmen defenses, communications equipment and a greenhouse.

Vietnam handed a letter of protest over the flight to the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi on Saturday.

In October 2014, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the Philippines submitted a note verbale to China, “protesting the activity” in the West Philippine Sea, waters in the South China Sea within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.