An aerial photo taken though a glass
window of a Philippine military plane shows the alleged on-going land reclamation
by China on mischief reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, west
of Palawan, Philippines, May 11, 2015. REUTERS/Ritchie B. Tongo/Pool
China has reclaimed more land in the
disputed Spratly Islands of the South China Sea than previously known,
according to a new Pentagon report, and a senior U.S. defense official said it
was unclear whether Beijing had stopped island-building in the region.
“China has said that it … has
stopped reclamation. … It’s not clear to us that they’ve stopped,” Assistant
Defense Secretary David Shear told a Pentagon briefing on Friday as the
department released a report on its Asia-Pacific Maritime Security Strategy.
Shear said ongoing Chinese activity
may simply be “finishing up” what Beijing started rather than adding more
territory, but “we are watching it carefully” for signs of further construction
or militarization.
The report said Beijing was in the
process of completing a runway on one of its seven man-made outposts. Once the
airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef is operational, China could potentially use it as
an alternative runway for carrier-based planes, allowing the Chinese military
to conduct “sustained operations” with aircraft carriers in the area, the
report said.
China’s sole aircraft carrier, a
Soviet-era ship bought from Ukraine and refitted in China, has carried out
exercises in the South China Sea but is not yet fully operational. Some experts
believe China will deploy domestically built carriers by 2020 as part of plans
to develop an ocean-going “blue water” navy.
At the reclamation sites in the
Spratlys where China is in the building phase, it has excavated deep channels
and constructed new berthing areas to allow access for larger ships, the report
said.
“The infrastructure China appears to
be building would enable it to establish a more robust power projection
presence into the South China Sea,” it added.
Since China’s land reclamation
efforts began in December 2013, it had reclaimed more than 2,900 acres (1,170
hectares) of land as of June 2015, the report said. U.S. officials had
previously put the total at 2,000 acres (809 hectares).
In a statement, China’s Foreign
Ministry said China had “completed the relevant island and reef area
reclamation project” at the end of June.
Construction activities were
“completely within the scope of China’s sovereignty”, it added.
In early August, Foreign Minister
Wang Yi said Beijing had halted land reclamation.
China says the outposts will have
undefined military purposes, as well as help with maritime search and rescue,
disaster relief and navigation.
Asked about the possibility of China
declaring an air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, over the South China
Sea, Shear said he thought the United States would reject it, just as it did
the ADIZ that Beijing declared over the East China Sea.
An ADIZ requires an aircraft flying
into the zone to identify itself, giving the country that established the zone
more time to protect itself against potentially hostile aircraft.
China claims most of the South China
Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The
Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims.
The reclamation campaign
significantly outweighed efforts by other claimants in size, pace and nature,
the Pentagon report said.
China had reclaimed 17 times more
land in 20 months than the other claimants combined over the past 40 years,
accounting for approximately 95 percent of all reclaimed land in the Spratlys,
it added.
(Reporting by David Alexander in
Washington, additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing; Writing by Dean
Yates; Wditing by Will Waterman and Ken Wills)
Credit Source: Reuters
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