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US confirms China deployed missiles on disputed island
These satellite images of Woody Island show the beach on February 3 (R), empty of missiles and, on February 14, with the surface-to-air missiles in place.
The Pentagon has confirmed that China has deployed surface to air missiles on a disputed island in the South China Sea, exacerbating tensions between China and the US and prompting Secretary of State John Kerry to suggest President Xi Jinping had abandoned a pledge not to militarise the strategically important region.
Chinese officials, while not directly confirming or denying US and Taiwanese claims that Beijing had placed surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the disputed Paracel chain, said they plan to keep strengthening defensive capabilities in the South China Sea. The US, already challenging Beijing by sailing warships and flying bombers near Chinese-held islands, warned against China’s build-up in a region where both sides increasingly find themselves locked into opposing positions.
“When President Xi was here in Washington, he stood in the Rose Garden with President Obama and said China will not militarise in the South China Sea,” Mr. Kerry said Wednesday. “But there is every evidence every day that there has been an increase of militarisation of one kind or another. It’s of serious concern.”
The spat appeared to douse any lingering warmth from Mr. Xi’s state visit to the US in September. For its part, just a month after the Obama-Xi summit, the US started testing China’s posture with what it labelled as freedom-of-navigation patrols near islands controlled by Beijing.
Satellite images show the surface-to-air missile system on a beach on Woody Island (L). The right hand image shows the location on Woody Island where the missiles were positioned. Picture: ImageSat International.
Neither side is likely to back down, analysts say. China’s Communist leaders have based their political legitimacy in large part on their ability to defend national sovereignty. And Mr Obama promised Southeast Asian leaders gathered in California this week that the US would help counter Beijing’s assertiveness in the region.
While both sides have no appetite for open conflict, their entrenched positions are narrowing their options for a diplomatic solution, while fuelling the potential for dangerous flare-ups.
“The risk of a worsening tit-for-tat game of strategic signalling has to be watched closely, especially the possibility of miscalculation,” said Rory Medcalf, a professor of Asia-Pacific security issues at Australian National University.
Beijing has been steadily bolstering its military capabilities in the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety. In May, China outlined plans to shift its armed forces’ focus toward maritime warfare to tackle new security challenges, including the US shift of military and other resources to Asia, and “provocative actions” from neighbouring countries.
As Washington continues its patrols in the South China Sea while Beijing bolsters its military presence in the area, “we could see some kind of altercation between the two sides,” said William Choong, an Asia-security specialist at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a security think tank.
Woody Island, known by the Chinese as Yongxing, is the largest island in the disputed Paracel chain. Picture: AFP.
Chinese officials on Wednesday voiced exasperation with what they described as a media-concocted controversy, stressing China’s benign intentions and its right to place “limited and necessary defensive facilities” on its sovereign territory.
Such deployments are “completely in accordance with the rights of self-defence accorded to any sovereign nation under international law,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
He called reports about the missile placements on Woody Island “a way for some Western media to create news,” and invited journalists to instead pay attention to Beijing’s efforts to build civilian facilities, such as lighthouses, in the South China Sea, according to a recording of his remarks.
China’s Defense Ministry decried what it said were Western media efforts to play up the “Chinese threat.” In a faxed statement, the ministry said “maritime and aerial defensive deployments on China’s relevant islands and reefs have existed for many years.”
Woody Island, known as Yongxing in Chinese, is home to Beijing’s only large operational airfield in the South China Sea. It is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
US and Taiwanese officials, who confirmed a Fox News report of the Chinese missile deployment on Woody Island, didn’t elaborate on its type and scale. Military experts say the weapons appear to be China’s HQ-9, a medium-to-long-range, radar-guided missile system.
Their deployment extends a gradual escalation of Beijing’s military presence in the South China Sea, which has long included anti-aircraft and naval guns, airstrips, radar and other military equipment, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia at the centre, said it appeared that China had planned the deployments for some time.
Placing missiles on Woody Island is a logical move to improve protection of China’s military assets in the vicinity, including a naval base capable of hosting submarines, said Zhu Feng, executive director of Nanjing University’s China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea. “These are part of China’s long-term plans for improving defensive capabilities within its own territory.”
The US and some Southeast Asian governments are suspicious of the efforts, particularly after Beijing’s artificial-island project in the Spratlys, south of the Paracels. Beijing conducted test flights to a new airstrip there last month, using civilian aircraft. It has also reclaimed land in the Paracels to enlarge Woody Island, as well as others nearby.
Last month, the USS Curtis Wilbur, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island, which is part of the Paracel chain.
After news of China’s missile deployment, U.S. officials again questioned Beijing’s intentions — and Mr. Xi’s pledge in the US.
Admiral Harry Harris Jr., who leads the US Pacific Command, told reporters in Tokyo that he didn’t have confirmation of the latest missile deployment, but said that if true “it could be an indication of militarisation of the South China Sea in ways that the president of China, President Xi [Jinping], said he would not do.” Adm. Harris later met with Japan’s defence minister, GeneralNakatani, who said Tokyo supports the US’s freedom-of-navigation operations.
Meanwhile, in Beijing, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who had been meeting with Mr Wang, her Chinese counterpart, found herself peppered with questions about the missile deployment. She said she hadn’t yet heard whether the reports were verified and reiterated “Australia’s welcome of President Xi’s statement in Washington that China did not intent to militarise the islands.”
Chinese military scholars expect Beijing to ignore Western misgivings about its military plans.
“China should determine deployment levels in accordance with threat levels,” Liang Fang, a military researcher and professor of naval studies at the PLA National Defense University, wrote on her verified microblog.
In the future, Beijing could deploy troops, aircraft, electronic surveillance, as well as anti-aircraft and antiship systems to the area, she wrote. “We are in charge of our islands; accelerating deployment is the hard truth.”
The Wall St Journal
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