Stop unilateral, destabilising actions in SCS: United States tells China

“If the PLA wants to achieve its naval supremacy over the South China Sea [in case there is a war], it’s a must for the navy to get air control over the Spratly Islands, which is the sole gateway for the Chinese navy to enter the Western Pacific”, the retired naval officer said.

China appears to be building a third airstrip on hotly contested territory in the South China Sea, according to expert analysis in Washington.

China is engaged in something more than mere mischief on Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands, new satellite images have revealed. “At the same time, China has also stated its intent to further construct facilities, including for the objective of military defence”, he said.

The images show a retaining wall around an area 3,000m long, matching similar work by China on two other reefs in the Spratlys, Subi and Fiery Cross, said Greg Poling, of Washington’s Center for Strategic and worldwide Studies. He added that it would be especially worrying if China were to install advanced air defenses.

On June 28, satellite imagery showed China had nearly completed construction of a 3km airstrip at Fiery Cross Reef, which China calls Yongshu. Hong, nonetheless, said China’s construction activities in the islands are “completely lawful, reasonable and justified”. Poling added in that different photographs showed work continuing apace at the opposite reef, referred to as Subi. “Clearly, what we have seen is going to be a 3,000-meter airstrip and we have seen some more work on what is clearly going to be some port facilities for ships”, Poling notes.

News of the work comes ahead of a visit to Washington next week by President Xi Jinping. “China’s stated intentions with its program, and continued construction, will not reduce tensions or lead to a meaningful diplomatic solution”, Commander Bill Urban, a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department, told Reuters.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea’s rocks, shoals, reefs and islets as its own, carving out the waterway with a so-called Nine Dash Line that extends southward toward Borneo to include 2 million sq km of sea.

China is claiming nearly all of the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea, while its neighbors – Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan – have rival claims.

In an attempt to take advantage of worldwide maritime laws that provide a certain radius of sovereignty to even the smallest strips of land, China has begun building artificial islands around spats of earth that are barely above sea level in an effort to project maritime power.