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U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter delivers a speech titled “Meeting
Asia’s Complex Security Challenges” at the 15th International Institute
for Strategic Studies Shangri-la Dialogue, or IISS, Asia Security Summit
on Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Singapore. AP PHOTO
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SINGAPORE—Chinese construction on a South
China Sea islet claimed by the Philippines would prompt “actions being taken”
by the United States and other nations, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter
warned Saturday.
Speaking at a security summit in
Singapore, Carter said Beijing risks building a “Great Wall of self-isolation”
with its military expansion in the contested waters, but he also proposed
stronger bilateral security cooperation to reduce the risks of a mishap.
“I hope that this development doesn’t
occur because it will result in actions being taken both by the United States,
and actions being taken by others in the region that will have the effect of
not only increasing tensions but isolating China,” Carter said when asked about
Scarborough Shoal in a forum also attended by senior Chinese military
officials.
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post
has reported that China plans to establish an outpost on the shoal, 230
kilometers (140 miles) off the Philippine coast, which Manila says lies in its
exclusive economic zone.
Beijing claims nearly all of the
strategically vital sea and has developed contested reefs into artificial
islands, some topped with airstrips.
Manila says China took effective
control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012, stationing patrol vessels and shooing
away Filipino fishermen, after a two-month stand-off with the Philippine Navy.
The Post cited a source closed to the
Chinese military as saying construction at the outpost would allow Beijing to
“further perfect” its air coverage across the South China Sea, suggesting it
plans to build an airstrip.
‘Great Wall of
self-isolation’
The construction plans were likely to
be accelerated in light of the upcoming ruling from the Permanent Court of
Arbitration at The Hague on a case brought by the Philippines against China,
which has shunned the proceedings and says it will not recognize any ruling.
In a prepared speech, Carter said the
United States views the upcoming ruling “as an opportunity for China and the
rest of the region to recommit to a principled future, to renewed diplomacy,
and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them.”
The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and
Vietnam have competing claims in the sea, which encompass vital global shipping
routes and is believed to have significant oil and gas deposits.
Beijing’s claim to nearly the entire
sea, based on controversial historical records, has also pitted it against the
United States, which has conducted patrols near Chinese-held islands to press
for freedom of navigation.
“Unfortunately, if these actions
continue, China could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation,” Carter
said in his speech.
The key to regional security, Carter
said, was enhanced military cooperation across the region and the observance of
“core principles” such as the peaceful resolution of disputes through legal
means and the development of a “principled security network.”
He also suggested the United
States and China would benefit from better military ties — both to build
understanding and to avoid the risk of mishaps.
According to the Pentagon, two Chinese
fighters last month conducted an “unsafe” intercept of a US spy plane in
international air space over the South China Sea, further heightening tensions
in the strategically vital waters.
“America wants to expand
military-to-military agreements with China to focus not only on risk reduction,
but also on practical cooperation,” Carter said.
His attendance at the summit is part of
a broader US diplomatic push, known as the Asia “rebalance”, to build and
maintain alliances in the Asia-Pacific region, which America sees as key to its
own long-term economic and security interests.
In a report last month, the Pentagon
said China put its land reclamation efforts on hold in the Spratly Islands
chain at the end of 2015. Instead, it focused on adding military infrastructure
to its reclaimed features.
In all, China has added more than 3,200
acres (1,295 hectares) of land to the seven features it occupies in the
Spratlys, the report found, and it has added lengthy runways to three of these.
