Vietnam protests at “serious violation” of sovereignty by China

SYDNEY-Australia and New Zealand on Friday strongly urged China to refrain from stoking tensions in the South China Sea after its apparent deployment of surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island there.

Commercial satellite photographs obtained by Fox News appeared to show that Beijing has placed two batteries of eight missile launchers with a reported distance of 125 miles and radar-targeting equipment on Woody island. Vietnam lost, but still claims sovereignty over the islands along with the region of Taiwan.

Labor defence spokesman Stephen Conroy has called for Australia to send the navy on a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea to demonstrate support for the worldwide rules based system.

“There is every evidence, every day, that there has been an increase of militarisation from one kind or another”.

US officials say China has reclaimed 3,200 acres (1,300 hectares) of land, mostly in the Spratly Island group and has recently conducted test flights to an island there with a newly built 10,000-foot (3,050-meter) airstrip.

“We had these conversations with the Chinese and I’m confident that, over the next days, we will have further very serious conversations on this”, he said.

Yang said islands in the South China Sea have been China’s territory since ancient times, and China has the right to maintain its territory, sovereignty and maritime interests.

China disputes South China Sea territory with several other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as the Philippines.

China, Taiwan and Vietnam all lay claim to strategically valuable Woody Island.

Beijing claims all of the Paracels, though Hanoi and Taipei have overlapping claims.

“The non-militarization in the South China Sea needs the joint efforts of the relevant countries inside and outside the region”, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The US will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever global law allows, and will support the right of all countries to do the same, Obama said yesterday, as he called for “tangible steps” to reduce tensions in the disputed and natural resource-rich South China Sea.

“If China wants to avoid falling into the Thucydides Trap, as President Xi describes it, then resolving disputes in the South China Sea should be done through worldwide law, through all of those mechanisms that are available to us”.

The foreign ministry spokesman rejected United States accusations that such deployments are leading to the militarization of the region.

“It is those actions, which heightened tensions in the South China Sea, that are militarizing the South China Sea”, he added. Furthermore, this island was claimed by Taiwan, China and Vietnam.